'^/Te BEGINNER'S 



HISTORY OF 

OUR 



COUNTRY 





Class ^£71 7 6- 

Book J 

f'ojpi>ii(N"^a. 

copyRicHT DEPosrr. 1*501 



The Beginner's 

History of Our Country 



By 



HARRY F. ESTILL 

Professor in the Sam Houston State Normal Institute, Huntsville, Texas 
Associate Author of "The History of Our Country" 



Dallas, Texas 

The Southern Publishing Company 

1 90 1 






THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

AUG. 9 190t 

Copyright entrv 
^LASS^XXc. N», 
COPY B. 



Copyright by 

HARRY F. ESTILL, 

1 90 1. 



PREFACE. 



The Beginner's History of Our Country, as its title 
indicates, is designed to introduce the study of American 
history. The underlying idea throughout the book is 
adaptation to the nature and needs of the child. Some 
distinctive features of the plan may here be noted. 

In the first place, unlike some primary histories in com- 
mon use, this is not an abridgment of a larger history. 
To attempt, within the narrow limits of a primary text- 
book, to present all of the events of our national life that 
are commonly considered important from the adult's 
standpoint, would be to reduce the narrative to little more 
than a catalogue of names and dates. Moreover, some 
subjects embraced in our country's history are absolutely 
beyond the comprehension of an immature mind. To 
require the young pupil to memorize statements upon such 
subjects is nothing short of a pedagogical crime. 

On the other hand. The Beginner's History of Our 
Country is not a storybook. It is not made up of dis- 
connected biographies of a few great Americans. Even 
in this early stage of his school life it is deemed important 
that the pupil gain a connected view — incomplete though 
it be — of his country's continuous life and progress. 

Accordingly, in the preparation of this book the 
author's purpose has been to present only such events 



IV PREFACE. 

as may be brought within the range of the child's 
comprehension and interest. The space allotted to the 
subjects selected is not apportioned according to adult 
ideas of historic importance. The sequence in the pres- 
entation of topics is not always that of chronology. The 
biographical treatment is freely, but not exclusively, used; 
individual biography is subordinated to the biography of 
the Union. The aim has been to give the learner a con- 
nected view of the life of our country in some of its 
simpler aspects rather than a series of disconnected views 
of the lives of great Americans. Loyalty to the memory 
of their fathers who fought for deathless principles, re- 
spect for honest differences of opinion and belief, admira- 
tion for noble character, in whatever section it has its 
home, are three elements of the earnest and hopeful patri- 
otism which this little book is intended to arouse in the 
breasts of the children who study it. 

In the mechanical execution of the book, as in its 
authorship, the idea of adaptation to the pupil has been 
steadily kept in view. With large print, excellent paper, 
abundant and artistic illustrations, and helpful maps, the 
publishers have left nothing undone that would contribute 
to the pleasure and benefit of the learner. 

Note. — In the preparation of this work for the press the author gratefully 
acknowledges the assistance of his sister, Miss Jennie Estill. 



Contents, 



CHAPTER. 

I. The Finding of America. »''\ge- 

1. Christopher Columbus i 

2. Discoveries of Columbus 6 

3. Some Results of Columbus's Discoveries 17 

II. Making Homes in the New Land. 

Walter Raleigh 24 

III. Virginia and Her Neighbors. 

1. John Smith — Virginia 34 

2. Virginia's Northern Neighbor — Maryland 50 

3. Virginia's Twin Southern Neighbors — the Carolinas .... 55 

4. Virginia's Voungest Neighbor — Georgia 59 

IV. Massachusetts and Her Neighbors. 

1. Myles Standish — Massachusetts 66 

2. The Little Neighbor of Massachusetts — Rhode Island.. . 75 

3. Two Other Neighbors of Massachusetts — Connecticut 

and New Hampshire 77 

4. King Philip's War 77 

V. Pennsylvania and Her Neighbors. 

1. William Penn — Pennsylvania ^ 81 

2. Pennsylvania's Little Neighbor — Delaware 87 

3. Pennsylvania's Twin Neighbors — the Jerseys 88 

4. Pennsylvania's Dutch Neighbor — New York 89 

VI. The Rise of New France. 

1. Cartier, the Explorer 94 

2. Champlain, tlie Father of New France 97 

3. La Salle, the Founder of Louisiana loi 

I 

VII. A Picture of Life in the Colonies. 

1. General View of the Colonies 108 

2. Story of a New England Boy 112 

3. The Story of a Southern Boy 121 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

VIII. The French War and the Downfall of New France. 

Colonel George Washington 132 

IX. War of the Revolution. 

General George Washington 144 

X. Benjamin Franklin ; 162 

XI. From the Alleghanies to the Mississippl 

1. Daniel Boone, Hunter and Pioneer 168 

2. General George Rogers Clark 173 

3. John Sevier, the State Builder 176 

XII. The New Government Started. 

President George Washington 182 

XIII. Thomas Jefferson. 

1. About Jefferson's Life iSg 

2. From the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains 194 

3. We Teach the Pirates of Africa a Lesson 199 

XIV. Andrew Jackson. 

The War of 1812. The Purchase of Florida 201 

XV. Three Great Inventions. 

1. The Steamboat 210 

2. The Railroad 214 

3. The Telegraph. 217 

XVI. Sam Houston. 

1. Early Life of Houston 221 

2. Texas and the Pacific Slope 225 

XVII. The Story of Two Kentucky Boys, 

Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis 233 

XVIII. The War between the States. 

1. The Beginning of the War 247 

2. West of the Alleghanies 251 

3. The Defense of Richmond 253 

4. After the Surrender 255 

XIX. Oi'fR Country Reunited 2C0 

XX. War with Spain. 

Our First Island Territory 266 



The Beginner's 

History of Our Country, 



CHAPTER I. 

The Finding of America. 



Christopher Columbus. 

Our Country Long Ago — A long, long time ago, long 
before our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers 
were born, this country of ours looked quite different 
from the way it appears to us to-day. True, the same 






A 







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INDIAN WIGWAMS. 



great rivers flowed down to the sea as now, the same hills 
and mountains lifted their heads above the valleys and 
plains; but there were no railroads and telegraph lines 
in that long-ago time; there were no schools, no churches, 
no houses, no farms. Not a single white man lived in 
all this land. There were some queer-looking red-skinned 
people here, whose clothes were made of the hides of 
animals, and who lived in huts, or wigwams, and roamed 



2 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

from one part of the country to another, hunting deer 
in the forest, or buffalo on the prairies. Would you like 
to learn how the first white man found his way to this 
country, how other white men came, after the first bold 
sailor had shown the way, how homes were made in the 
woods, fierce enemies were driven away, schools, churches, 
and towns built ? Would you like to learn how our coun- 




INDIA.NS HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 



try grew from a few scattered farms and settlements 
along the seacoast to the greatest nation in the world ? In 
the pages of this book this story will be told. To begin 
with, let us see how the first white men came to our 
country. 

The Old Town of Genoa — In the far-away land of Italy 
is an old town named Genoa, built on the shore of 
the Mediterranean Sea. The streets of this town are nar- 
row and crooked, the houses are tall, with steep, pointed 
roofs, small windows, and balconies hanging over the 
sidewalks. The people speak a different language from 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 3 

ours, so you could not understand them if you should 
hear them talk. The part of the sea that touches Genoa 
is so shut in by the land 
that it makes a fine har- 
bor, where ships are 
safe from storms. 
Here, every day, for 
hundreds of years, ships 
have been coming and the home of columbus. 




IP*. 



loaded with 



freight for the merchants of Genoa. Among the Genoese 
boys of long ago who loved to spend their holidays at the 
water's edge were three brothers, Christopher, Diego, and 
Bartholomew Columbus. These boys took great delight 
in watching the busy sailors unloading their strange car- 
goes of silks, spices, and jewels, and in listening to their 
stories of the distant lands they had visited. Christopher, 
the oldest of the boys, often declared to his younger 
brothers that he would one day be a sailor, and the captain 
of the finest of the ships. 

A Genoese Schoolboy. — The father of Christopher Co- 
lumbus was a wool-comber, that is, a man who earned his 
living by combing wool so as to smooth and straighten it 
for the cloth-makers. Noticing Christopher's fondness 
for the sea, he sent the boy to school, where he could study 
those subjects that would be of use to him as a sailor. The 
schools of that day were quite different from our schools. 
The art of printing had been known only a short time, 
and it is probable that Christopher Columbus had never 
seen a printed book. A few printed books might have 
been found in the libraries of the learned men of Genoa, 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



but most books of that time were rolls of paper, on which 
the words were written with pen and ink. In the schools 
the pupils had no books, but learned what the teacher told 
them, sometimes writing down or committing to memory 
what he said. Geography, astronomy, and navigation 
were the studies to which Christopher devoted most of 

his time, for as a 
sailor he would have 
to know each of these 
subjects. 

Geographies of that 
Day. — M o s t teach- 
ers of geography in 
those times taught 
that the earth was flat, 
though there w^ere a 
few learned men who 
believed that it was 
round. While a school- 
boy, Christopher prob- 
ably heard both of 
these beliefs expressed, 
but which was correct no one knew. Europe, Asia, and 
the northern part of Africa were the only countries then 
known. No one could say how far Africa extended to- 
ward the south, or Asia toward the east. North America, 
South America, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean had 
never been heard of, and so were not found on any maps. 
The Atlantic Ocean was called the ''Sea of Darkness," 
because so little was known about it. The maps of the 
world Columbus learned to make were like this : 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 




EQUATCR 

UNKNOWN LAND 



MAP OF THE WORLD STUDIED BY COLUMBUS. 

The Schoolboy Becomes a Sailor. — When Christopher 
was fourteen years old his father took him from school. 
The boy did not like his father's trade of wool-combing, 
however, and to his great delight he was allowed to become 
a sailor. He soon learned all about sailing a ship, and 
was so apt, diligent, and skillful that in a few years he 
became captain of a vessel. On trading voyages, or fight- 
ing with the enemies of his country, Columbus visited the 
most important ports on the coast of the Mediterranean 
Sea. 

He Makes His Home in Portugal. — If you will find the 
country of Portugal on the map, and observe that it is 
situated on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and also at 
the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, you will not be 
surprised that the people of Portugal have always been 
skillful sailors. When Columbus was a boy, the Portu- 
guese had begun to explore the coast of Africa, trying to 
find how far south it extended. Prince Henry of Portu- 
gal encouraged these voyages of discovery, and estab- 
lished a college where everything relating to navigation 



THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

was taught by the most learned teachers of Europe. Por- 
tuguese sailors soon became famous for their daring and 
successful voyages. Columbus was always glad when his 
duty took him to Portugal, where he could hear of the 
latest discoveries, and perhaps learn something new about 
the art of navigation. One day, when attending church in 
the city of Lisbon, he saw a young lady sitting near him 
wdio was so beautiful that, try as hard as he might, he 
could not listen to the service for looking at her or think- 
ing about her. This young lady was the daughter of a 
famous Italian sailor who was employed by the king of 
Portugal. Columbus contrived to meet the lady, and 
persuaded her to be his wife. After his marriage he 
made his home in Portugal, and, when not away on the 
sea, earned his living by making maps and charts. 

Were you ever f;ir in the woods or on the wild prairie, out of sight of all signs of human 
beings ? If so, tell how you came to be there, and what you saw. 

What can you say of the appearance of all this country before the first white people came ? 
Tell all you can about Genoa. Who was Christopher Columbus ? His father? How did 
Christopher and his brothers spend their spare time ? Tell of Christopher's school. What 
different views about the earth's shape did Christopher hear? What parts of the world 
were then known ? (What parts of the world are unknown to-day?) At what age did 
Columbus have to stop school ? What did he then do ? Why were the Portuguese skillful 
sailors ? What had the Portuguese done to advance geographical knowledge ? How did 
Columbus come to make his home in Portugal? 

Discoveries of Columbus. 

A Great Voyage Planned. — Not many years before this 
time, a venturesome Italian traveler had passed over the 
mountains, valleys, and plains of western Asia, and had 
visited India, China, and Japan. This traveler, Marco 
Polo by name, returned to Europe with wonderful reports 
of the wealth of these distant lands. Rich merchants at 
once sent out trading expeditions to get some of the silks, 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 



spices, and gums of India. The trade in these things 
would have l^een highly profitahle if it had not heen that 
part of the journey to India had to be made by land. In 
those days land transportation was slow, expensive, and 
dangerous, because goods had to be carried on the backs 
of horses or camels through countries infested by robbers. 





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THE 
IN 


KNOWN WORLD 
THE TIME OF 
COLUMBUS. 









Therefore wealth and fame awaited the sailor who should 
find an all-water route to India. Portuguese sailors were 
trying to reach the coveted land by sailing around the 
southern end of Africa. Columbus began studying the 
problem, and kept thinking about it while drawing his 
maps or making his voyages. 'Tf the earth is round, as I 
believe it is," said he, "why cannot I reach Asia by going 
west?" He concluded that a voyage westward across the 
untried waters of the Atlantic Ocean would bring him to 
the eastern shores of Asia, and he decided to make the at- 
tempt as soon as he could get the necessary ships and men. 



8 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

What People Thought of the Plan. — To the people of his 
time this bold plan of Columbus seemed almost as foolish 
and dangerous as a proposal to cross the ocean on a 
bicycle would seem to us to-day. Some said he was crazy 
and pitied him. Others made fun of him. They told him 
that if the earth were round, as he claimed, men on the 
other side would be walking with their heads downward, 
and that his ships would have to sail up-hill to return to 
Europe; that in mid-ocean the waves were boiling hot, 
and were the home of terrible sea monsters ready to swal- 
low any ship daring enough to venture among them. 

Disappomtments. — Years passed by. One hot summer 
day two travelers, foot-sore and dust-stained, stopped for 
food and rest at the gate of a convent a few miles from the 
town of Palos, Spain. One of the strangers was a man of 
tall figure and thoughtful face, the other a boy about eight 
years of age. The travelers were Christopher Columbus 
and his son, Diego. They w^re welcomed to the convent, 
and in answ^er to the questions of the kind priest, Colum- 
bus told his story. His young wife had died soon after 
the birth of his son. Endeavoring to carry out his plan 
of sailing westward to India, and finding himself too poor 
to hire ships and men for the voyage, he had applied to 
the king of Portugal for help. The king listened to his 
plan, but declared his ideas foolish fancies. Columbus 
had then visited Spain, and asked King Ferdinand and 
Queen Isabella to aid him in his' plan. But the people of 
Spain were in the midst of a great war, and no one would 
listen to poor Columbus. Disappointed and almost heart- 
broken, he and his little son were leaving the country; 
hunger and weariness forced them to stop at the convent. 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 



Help at Last. — The prior, or director of the convent, 
was deeply interested in the story of Columbus and de- 
termined to do his best to help him. He introduced 
Columbus to the rich shipowners of Palos, and, best 




COLUMBUS AT THE COURT OF SPAIN, 



of all, secured for him a meeting with the queen. To 
Queen Isabella Columbus showed his maps and charts, 
and, explained his plan of reaching India by sailing west- 
ward, lie begged her to aid him. The good queen 
was so impressed with the story that she declared she 
would pledge her jewels if necessary to provide ships for 
the voyage. By the aid of the queen and of two rich sea 
captains of Palos, three small ships were secured. But the 
troubles of Columbus were not yet over. His next diffi- 
culty was in getting sailors to manage his ships. No one 



lO 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OL'R COUNTRY 



had ever before dared to sail straight out toward the mid- 
dle of the Atlantic, and the l>oldest sailors were afraiil ti> 
attempt it. After much delay a few sailors were induced 
hv i)n)mises of reward to join the expedition. To till out 
the necessary number, some men had to be arrested and 
forced into service by the king's order. 

The Voyage. — A 



^^ 




SMII" L'F THAT 1 IMK. 



crowd oi wcepmg 
wives, mothers, 
sisters, and friends 
came down to the 
shore to say good- 
l)ye to the daring 
sailors, wliom they 
-^^,^. ^wiA\ ^— - _ feared they w<>uld 

ne\er see again. 
Leaving the har- 
bor of Palos, 
Spain. Q>luml)us with his three ships sailed southwest, 
and touched at the Canary Islands (see map). These is- 
lands, then as now, belonged to Spain, antl were the far- 
thest lands to the west then known. On leaving the Ca- 
naries. Columbus steered straight towanl the setting sun. 
As the men saw the shores fade from view, a feeling of 
dread came over them at the thought of the unknown 
dangers ahead. Many a sailor would have given every- 
thing he possessed to be safe back in the harlH)r at Palos. 
Columbus had no fears. Firm in his belief in the round- 
ness of the earth, he felt certain of success. His cheerful- 
ness and hopefulness calmed the fears of his men. 

Land Discovered — As w eeks passed by and no land was 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. II 

seen, the fears of the sailors returneil. They talked of re- 
fusing" to obey Colunihus, and cd* taking charge of the 
ships themselves and sailing back home. Two months 
l)asscd l)v, and at last signs of land began to appear. 
Mocks of land birds flew cn-er the ships, the bree/.e had 
an odor of llowers, a branch with berries on it lloated by. 
The saihn's now remained awake all night, each eager 



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Le'lCiir..vv ts, Sf 






MAP OF COLUMBUS S ROUTE ON HIS GRKAT VOYAGE. 

to get the reward promised t(^ the one who slunild be the 
first to see land. A little before daylight one morning 
the bring of a gnn on one of the ships annonnced the joy- 
fnl tidings that land had been seen. At once the ships 
stopped, and awaited the dawn. 

The Landing. — The morning snnlight revealed a beau- 
tifnl island. Beyond its white sandy beach Colnmbns saw 
Inxnriant grass, and tall palm trees snrronnding a spar- 
kling lake. Strange, red-skinned people, their naked bodies 
])ainte(l in bright colors, came crowding to the shore, jab- 
bering excitedly to each other, as they pointed to the pale- 
faced strangers and their white-winged ships. Dressed in 
his finest clothes, Colnmbus landed, and as he stepped 
upon the shore he kneeled down and retnrned thanks to 
God. Rising from his knees, he raised the Hag of Spain, 



12 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




liiiiiiilil, .L 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 1 3 

thus claiming the land for King Ferdinand and Queen 
Isabella. This was Friday, October 12, 1492. 

Was It India? — Columbus was sure the new land was 
one of the islands which he had read lay just east of the 
coast of India. He was confident that the mainland of 
India was close at hand. His heart thrilled with joy and 
pride as he thought that now his years of persevering 
effort, weary waiting, and bitter disappointment were 
at last crowned with glorious success. No more would 
people laugh at him and say he was crazy. His belief in 
the roundness of the earth had been proven, for he had 
done what many of the wisest men of his time had de- 
clared impossible — by sailing west he had discovered (as 
he believed) a water route to India. Filled with thank- 
fulness to God, he named the island San Salvador, which 
means in our language Holy Saviour. We know now 
that this island, San Salvador, is one of the Bahama group 
lying southeast of Florida, and that to reach India, had 
there been no land in his way, Columbus would have had 
to sail more than twice as far as he had already gone. Be- 
fore returning home Columbus discovered a number of 
other islands, among them Cuba and Hayti. These large 
islands he supposed to be the mainland of India, and ac- 
cordingly the Spaniards called the group the West Indies, 
a name they have ever since borne. For the same reason 
the people who inhabited them were called Indians. 

Home Again. — One of the three ships in which Colum- 
bus sailed was wrecked off the coast of Hayti, but for- 
tunately all on board were saved. After a stormy voyage 
the two remaining ships reached the harbor of Palos, 
-whence they had set out just seven months and twelve 



14 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



"I days before. The news that 
Columbus had returned 
quickly spread from house to 
house, and we may be sure 
there was great rejoicing in 
the little town of Palos. An 
eager, joyous crowd now hur- 
ried to the shore to greet their 
friends whom they had given 
up for lost. Tears of joy 
were shed, and there were 
looks of wonder at the strange 
men and birds and plants that 
Columbus brought back from 
the Western world. Instead 
of a poor wanderer, Colum- 
bus was now the "Great Ad- 
miral," and people who once 
laughed at him and his plans 
were anxious to show him 
honor. The king and queen 
welcomed him as if he had 
been a prince. Preparations were at once made to send 
out a large expedition to build a city and firmly establish 
the power of Spain in her new possessions. 

Other Voyages : Columbus Arrested. — Columbus found no 
trouble in getting sailors to accompany him on his second 
voyage to the West. This time he discovered the island 
of Jamaica and numerous smaller islands. He founded a 
city in Hayti, which he named Isabella, after the queen. 
Two other voyages were made by him, during which he 



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NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN. 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 



15 




discovered the northern coast of South America. The 
Spaniards who accom- 
panied Columbus, how- 
ever, were jealous of him 
because he was a native of 
a different country from 
themselves. No doubt he 
made some mistakes in his 
government. Some dis- 
liked him for this reason, 
others hated him because 
he forced them to obey his 
orders. So his enemies 
began to send word to the 
king that Columbus was 
guilty of unjust and 
wicked acts. He returned 

to Spain and proved his innocence of the charges against 
him. But the stories w^re repeated, and finally the great 
admiral was arrested and sent back in chains. As soon 
as Queen Isabella saw him, however, she was so moved 
with pity that she burst into tears, and ordered him to be 
released. 

Troubles in His Old Age — On his return from his fourth 
voyage Columbus found his good friend, Queen Isabella, 
dying. He himself was now a feeble old man of nearly 
seventy. King Ferdinand treated him with coldness. The 
people who had crowded around him to shout his praises 
on his return from his first voyage now hardly spoke to 
him as he passed. Homeless and friendless, he wrote to 
his son, ''Oftentimes I have not the money to pay for a 



QUEEN ISABELLA. 



1 6 THE BEGINNER^S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

meal or a bed." A few months later death relieved him of 
his troubles. He died believing that he had discovered 
the eastern shores of Asia. 

Burying Places of Columbus — The body of Columbus 
was first buried in Spain. Afterward, according to a wish 
he expressed before his death, his remains were removed 
to Hayti. Many years later, when Hayti was given to 
France, Spanish officers took what they supposed were 
the bones of Columbus to Cuba, and buried them at Ha- 
vana. (By a mistake, it may have been the bones of Co- 
lumbus's son, Diego, that were removed.) After our 
Spanish War, when Spain had to give up Cuba, the sup- 
posed remains of Columbus were again removed. This 
time they were taken back to Spain and placed in the 
cathedral of Seville. 

Success through Failure. — We know that he had failed in 
the great purpose of his life, yet Columbus did what was 
of far more benefit to mankind than the most complete 
success of his plan would have been. The discovery of 
the great continent on which we live was one of the most 
important events in the history of the world. Four hun- 
dred years have passed since his great deed was done, yet 
to-day the name of Columbus is known and honored all 
over the world. 



Tell about Marco Polo and his travels. What was the effect of the accounts he gave of 
India ? What plan did Columbus form ? What did people think of his plan ? Tell about 
the two travelers who stopped at the convent gate. How did the prior of the convent help 
Columbus? How were ships and sailors obtained? Tell of the beginning of the voyage 
and the first stop. The direction Columbus then took. What did the frightened sailors 
think of doing? Tell of the discovery of land. Describe the land and the people Colum« 
bus saw from his ship. Tell about his landing. What did Columbus believe the new land 
to be? What do we now know it to be ? What other land did Columbus discover on this 
voyage ? Explain the names " San Salvador." " West Indies," and " Indians." 



the finding of america. 1/ 

Some Results of Columbus's Discoveries. 

The Mainland First Discovered. — The news of the dis- 
coveries of Columbus soon spread from Spain to other 
countries. Now that the brave Cokimbus had shown 
the way across the terrible ocean many other sailors 
were eager to sail toward the west in the hope of either 
finding the gold fields of India or of discovering some- 
new land. While Columbus was preparing for his third 
voyage, John Cabot — an Italian sailor living in Eng- 
land — was studying maps and tracing on them the route 
Columbus was reported to have taken. He came to the 
conclusion that he could find a shorter route to India than 
Columbus had found. Accordingly he obtained permission 
from King Henry the Seventh, of England, to make the 
attempt. Some English merchants furnished him with 
one small ship and eighteen men, in return for which he 
agreed to share with them the gold and spices he expected 
to find. Taking a more northerly course than Co- 
lumbus had taken, he reached the icy and barren shores 
of what is now called Labrador ( 1497) . This was a year 
before Columbus discovered the mainland of South Amer- 
ica, so to Cabot belongs the honor of being the first to 
reach the continent. The next year, John Cabot's son, 
Sebastian, set sail with a larger expedition, and explored 
the coast of the continent from Labrador to the great bay 
since named Chesapeake. TheCabots claimed for England 
the land they had discovered. Like Columbus, they 
thought they had reached Asia. As they did not find the 
riches of India, the English for a long time took no 
further interest in western voyages. 



1 8 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The Coming" of the French. — When the Cabots returned 
from their voyages they reported that the waters off the 
northern shores they had visited fairly swarmed with 
fish, so that at times their ships were delayed by them. 
To the hardy fishermen of northern France good fishing 
grounds were more attractive than gold mines or spice 
fields. So they at once steered their little fishing boats 
toward the wonderful fish-swarming waters. In a few 
years the banks of Newfoundland were frequented by 
French fishing vessels, and a profitable fur trade between 
the fishermen and the Indians sprang up. In this way the 
claim of the French to this part of America began. 

The Naming of the Continent — Columbus called the 
islands which he first discovered the West Indies, and for 
a long time the continent was known as Asia or India. 
^^'hen the people of Europe at last found out that the new 
land was a separate continent, and not a part of Asia, a 
new name had to be chosen for it. Americus Vespucius 
was an Italian sailor who accompanied Columbus on some 
of h-is voyages, and was afterward employed by the king 
of Portugal. Americus, while sailing in a Portuguese 
ship, explored the coast of what is now Brazil far enough 
southward to prove that this land was not a part of Asia. 
Wlien he returned to Europe he published an account of 
the country he had visited, declaring it to be a new conti- 
nent. This was the first printed description of the newly 
discovered lands. It was widely read and made Americus 
famous. A German professor, after reading Americus's 
book, wrote a geography, in which he suggested that the 
new continent discovered by Americus be called America 
in his honor. Soon afterward, on the rude maps of that 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 



19 



time, the name, America, appeared on what we now^ call 
South America, North America being still considered a 
part of Asia. When finally the northern continent was 
found to be joined to its southern neighbor, and equally 
as separate from Asia, the name America was given to 
both. 





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DE LEON ON FLORIDA COAST. 



The ''Land of Flowers" Discovered. — The Indians who 
lived on the West India Islands believed that somewhere 
in the lands west of them was a spring that possessed the 
magic power of making forever young anyone who 
should bathe in its waters. Among the Spanish settlers 
who heard and believed this story was a rich old man 



20 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

named Ponce de Leon, who had once been governor of 
Porto Rico, and who still made his home on that island. 
De Leon was unhappy because he was growing old and 
feeble, and he often longed for the strength of his youth- 
ful days. At his own expense he fitted out two ships to go 
in search of the wonderful fountain the Indians talked 
about. After visiting several small islands, his ships one 
day arrived at the coast of the most beautiful land that 
De Leon had ever seen. To the wondering Spaniards it 
looked like a great flower garden, with its blossoming 
trees and flowering plants, over which luxuriant vines 
gracefully, twined themselves, w^hile the air was filled 
with the music of song birds and the fragrance of flowers. 
A land of perpetual youth, indeed, it seemed to be! De 
Leon and his men disembarked, and began their search 
for the fabled fountain. Many lovely springs they found, 
into whose waters the old man eagerly plunged ; but every 
bath left him still wrinkled and gray as before. Li de- 
spair he at last returned to his ships and sailed away. De 
Leon named this beautiful land Florida, partly because he 
had discovered it on Easter Sunday — which is 'Tascua 
Florida" in Spanish — and partly because it was indeed a 
land of flowers. The king of Spain appointed him gov- 
ernor of Florida, and he returned with a number of ships 
to take possession of the country. The Indians attacked 
his men, and De Leon was wounded by a poisoned arrow. 
Thus the old man received his death wound in the beau- 
tiful land of flowers where he had hoped to find immortal 
youth. His discovery of Florida, however, gave his coun- 
trymen, the Spaniards, a claim to this part of the main- 
land of North America. 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 



21 



De Soto's Search for Gold. — About twenty years after the 
death of Ponce de Leon another company of Spaniards 
landed on the coast of Florida. Their leader was Fer- 
dinand de Soto. His purpose was to search for and seize 
the great stores of gold which he believed were to be 
found in some great Indian city in the west. With his 




DE SOTO REACHES THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



army of six hundred men De Soto left his ships and 
plunged into the forests toward the northwest. His fol- 
lowers treated the Indians most cruelly, binding their 
necks with iron collars and their hands with chains. For 
months the Spaniards wandered onward, passing many 
Indian villages. But the rich city of which De Soto 
dreamed was as hard to find as De Leon's fountain of 
youth. 



22 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The Great River: Death of De Soto. — At last they came 
to a mighty river, the largest stream their eyes had ever 
beheld. ^Mississippi, or Great River, the Indians called it. 
"Great River," indeed, it seemed to the Spaniards, for a 
mile of rushing water separated them from the opposite 
bank. They made some rafts and crossed the river. But 
now De Soto was taken with fever and died. His fol- 
lowers knew that the Indians feared their fierce leader, 
and they determined not to let his death be known. So 
they carried his body by night in a boat to the middle of 
the river and buried it in the water. The death of De 
Soto completely discouraged his men. They beat the iron 
chains of their captives into nails and made some rafts. 
Then they floated down the Mississippi, and at last 
reached a Spanish settlement on the Gulf of Mexico. Half 
of their brave company had perished in their five years' 
wanderings. 

The First Voyage Around the World. — When European 
sailors realized that the western land was not a part of 
Asia, they set to work to seek a passage for their ships 
through the midst of it or around it, hoping to carry out 
the plan of Columbus to find a western water route to In- 
dia. Ferdinand Magellan, a native of Portugal, started 
from Spain, and crossing the Atlantic, passed around 
the southern extremity of South America. He called the 
great ocean upon which he then found himself the Pacific 
(peaceful), because its waters seemed so calm after the 
stormy Atlantic. He crossed this great ocean and reached 
the Philippine Islands. Landing here, Magellan was 
killed in a battle with the natives. His men continued the 
voyage, sailed through the Indian Ocean, around the 



THE FINDING OF AMERICA. 23 

southern end of Africa, and northward to Spain. It took 
just three years and twenty-eight days to make this first 
voyage around the world. The shape of the earth was 
now settled beyond a doubt. 

Three Nations of Europe Claim North America — It was 
Columbus^s successful voyage across the Atlantic that led 
to the discoveries of John Cabot and of others about 
whom we have been studying. If Columbus had lived 
fourteen years longer than he did, he would have learned 
from the reports of Americus Vespucius that South 
America is not a part of Asia, and he would have 
heard with delight that Magellan's sailors had proved 
the truth of his belief in the roundness of the earth. By 
this time too, he w^ould have seen that three European 
nations had begun to claim the northern continent. Spain 
claimed the southern part, including the West India Is- 
lands and Florida ; France the region around the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence; England the part of the continent north of 
Florida, including France's claim. 

Tell about John Cabot and his plan. His voyage and discover^'. Of the voj'age of 
Sebastian Cabot. P'or what nation did the Cabots claim the land? How did the English 
regard it? Tell about the coming of the first Frenchmen to America. Tell of Americus 
Vespucius and his voyages. How was his name given to the continent ? Tell the story of 
Ponce de Leon. Tell of De Soto's wanderings and death. What became of his men ? Tell 
about his first voyage around the world. What two geographical questions that had puz- 
zled Columbus were settled soon after his death ? What European nations began to claim 
North America ? What parts of the continent did they claim ? 



24 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER 11. 

Making Homes in the New Land. 



Walter Raleigh. 

The Search for Gold. — The lirst Europeans who came to 
America expected to find the gold of India, but America 
was found to be a great continent blocking the way to 

India. Everybody then 
beheved that this new 
land was full of gold, if 
they only knew where to 
look for it. So in a 
search for gold adven- 
turers from Europe wan- 
dered through our path- 
less forests and over our 
great plains, climbed 
mountains and waded riv- 
ers. Some perished of 
hunger or died of fever, 
yet the survivors continued the mad, uncertain search. 
It seems strange to us that it took the men of that time 
so long to see that the New World offered surer ways of 
earning a living, and even of getting rich, than by hunt- 
ing for gold. There were the great trees of the forests, of 
which houses could be built; there was the rich soil, ready 
to reward the plowman's toil with bountiful crops; there 




MAKING HOMES IN THE NEW LAND. 



were the swift-running streams, ready to turn the wheels 
of machinery for mills and factories. For a long time, 
however, the idea that America was a great gold field 
completely filled people's minds. No rich man was will-' 
ing to advance the money needed to transport farmers 
and mechanics to this country, and to furnish them with 
tools for the slow work of raising crops and building 




■«fc^ 



v\\|i I ^m 






m 



RALEIGH THROWING HIS CLOAK BEFORE THE QUEEN. 

homes. How the first English homes came to be made in 
this country, and something of the troubles that befell 
them, our story will now tell. 

An Act of Politeness, and What Came of It. — Queen Eliz- 
abeth of England was a granddaughter of the King 
Henry who had given permission to John Cabot to sail to 

the western lands. Oueen Elizabeth came to the throne 
3 



26 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

while a young woman, and during her long reign proved 
to be one of the wisest rulers England ever had. One 
day when the queen and several tine ladies of her court 
were out for a walk they came to a muddy place in the 
path. It happened that at this moment a young man 
wearing a handsome red velvet cloak was passing. He 
saw the queen looking anxiously around, uncertain where 
to step. Springing forward, he threw his beautiful cloak 
on the ground before her, thus enabling her majesty to 
continue her walk without danger of soiling her royal 
shoes. This act of politeness so pleased the queen that 
she invited W^alter Raleigh (for this was the young man's 
name) to her court, and became his firm friend. 

Kaleigh's Plan, and How the Queen Helped Him. — Walter 
Raleigh was not only a polite and handsome courtier, but 
he was one of the most learned and thoughtful men of his 
time. Xearl}' a hundred years had passed since the 
Cabots had discovered the mainland of North America 
and claimed it for England; yet in all this time English- 
men had thought little about the new land, and had made 
no effort to occupy it. Raleigh believed that his country- 
men should take possession of the region which they 
claimed. Accordingly he asked permission of the queen 
to establish a settlement, or colony, upon any land in 
America not already occupied by any Christian nation. 
Queen Elizabeth readily favored the plan of her gallant 
friend, and gave him a charter, or. written permit, to gov- 
ern the colony he should establish. 

Searching for a Place for a Colony — At his own expense 
Raleigh fitted out two ships with which to visit America 
and find a suitable place for a colony. He wished to ac- 



MAKING HOMES IX THE NEW LAND. 



27 



company the expedition himself, but the queen was un- 
wilHng for her friend to risk his hfe in dangerous sea 
fights, so he remained at liome. His ships reached what 
is now the eastern coast of North Carohna. The men 
were deHghted with the new land. They found grapes in 
abundance, "sweet-smelling timber trees," beautiful song 
birds, and "gentle, loving, and faithful" natives. They 
spent some time trading with the Indians, but did not 
try to make a settlement. They returned to England car- 
rying with them a cargo of furs and wood (1584). 




WHERE RALEIGH S SETTLEMENT WAS MADE. 



Raleigh's First Settlement. — Queen Elizabeth was much 
pleased with the accounts given by Raleigh's sailors of 
the land they had visited, which they declared to be the 
"most plentiful, sweet, fruitful, and wholesome of all the 
world." The country was called Virginia, in honor of 
Elizabeth, the virgin, or unmarried, queen. With the 
aid of the queen Raleigh fitted out a larger expedition, 
consisting this time of seven ships and over one hundred 
colonists. They landed on an island now known as Roa- 



28 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

noke Island, not far from the one visited by Raleigh's 
ships the year before, and made a settlement there. In- 
stead of setting to work to supply themselves with food 
by cultivating the soil, the colonists wandered over the 
country searching for pearls and gold, which they never 
found. They treated the Indians harshly, and the red 
men, who at first had been friendly, refused to supply them 
with food, and even threatened to attack the settlement. 
Working but little, the colonists devoted their idle mo- 
ments to thinking and talking over their troubles. Of 
course they grew homesick. A fleet of ships stopped there 
on its way to England, and the colonists begged so ear- 
nestly to be taken aboard that the sailors could not re- 
fuse, and all of them were taken home. 

Raleigh's Last Attempt — But Raleigh was not discour- 
aged. The year after the return of his colonists he sent 
out another company under Governor White. They oc- 
cupied the deserted houses on Roanoke Island. In one of 
these log cabins w^as born a little baby girl, the first child 
born of English parents in America. She was the grand- 
daughter of Governor White, and was named Virginia 
Dare. A short time after the baby was born her grand- 
father, the governor, had to go back to England for 
needed supplies. He found the people of England in the 
midst of a war with Spain, and he was unable to return 
to his colony for three years. When he returned to Roa- 
noke he could find no trace of his little granddaughter nor 
her parents, nor any of the other colonists. What became 
of them? Had they all been killed by the Indians? or 
had they been taken prisoners by the savages and car- 
ried away to live among them? or had they wandered 



MAKING HOMES IN THE NEW LAND. 29 




BAPTISM OF VIRGINIA DARE. 



MAKING HOMES IN THE NEW LAND. 



31 



away from the settlement and been lost and starved 
to death in the dense woods? or had they been 
drowned while attempting, in rude boats of their own 
making, to return to England? To this day no one 
knows what became of little Virginia Dare and her par- 
ents, and probably no one will ever know. Raleigh would 
have been glad to send out another company of colonists, 
but he had spent so much money in hiring ships and buy- 
ing supplies for his settlers that he could not afford to 
make another attempt. 

Some Things Raleigh's Colonists Took Back to England. 

— The settlers on Roa- 
noke Island had noticed 
the Indians rolling up 
the broad leaves of a 
weed and smoking them, 
and they were told by 
the red men that it 
would keep them from 
getting hungry and 
tired. The white men 
tried it and were so well 
pleased that they 
brought some of the 
leaves home and gave 
them to Raleigh, 
distributed 
his friends. 




eigh 



Ral- 

them 

The 

queen smoked some of 
them, and soon tobacco smoking became popular in Eng- 
land. They also brought home a root called by the In- 



TOBACCO PLANl', 



32 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

dians ''botah," which was good to eat when boiled or 
baked. Raleigh had some of these ''botah roots" planted 
on his land in Ireland. His neighbors liked them so well 
that before long nearly every farm in Ireland raised a 
crop, and the root became known to the people of Europe 
as the Irish potato. 

Last Days of Raleigh. — At this time Spanish ships 
brought to Spain each year many cargoes of gold from 
Mexico and South America. Raleigh caught the ''gold 
fever," and fitted out some ships that visited the northern 
coast of South America. Raleigh himself led the expedi- 
tion, but he found no gold. Now troubles came thick 
upon him. His good friend, Queen Elizabeth, died; the 
new king, James 11. , did not like Raleigh, because he 
thought Raleigh had tried to prevent him from being 
king. So he took away Sir Walter's offices, and finally 
put him in prison. He was tried for treason, or plotting 
against the king, and was sentenced to death. For twelve 
years, however, he was kept in prison, and he occupied 
his time during those dreary years wTiting a great book 
called The History of the World. The king released him 
from prison that he might make another voyage to South 
America in search of gold. Raleigh knew that if he 
should bring back a rich treasure for the king he would 
no doubt be freed from the unjust sentence of death that 
had been passed upon him, and that if he .failed he would 
probably have to die. But the Spaniards seemed to be 
the only ones who were able to find gold. Raleigh's only 
son, young Walter, who accompanied him, was killed in 
a battle with the Spaniards in South America. Broken- 
hearted, the old man sailed back to England, where he 



MAKING HOMES IN THE NEW LAND. 33 

was at once thrown into prison again, and soon after- 
ward put to death. 

What We Owe to Raleigh — Raleigh's attempts to find 
gold in South America were miserable failures, and 
brought no good to him or to his countrymen. His at- 
tempts to establish a colony in his land of Virginia, 
though disappointments to him, were the beginning of 
the English occupation of North America. He was the 
first Englishman who tried to induce his people to make 
homes in the new world, where they should be allowed 
just laws and the same rights they had enjoyed at home. 
While he failed to carry out his great plan himself, yet he 
set the people to thinking and talking about it, so that 
before he died his idea was carried out by other English- 
men, and the fair land of Virginia was occupied by 
English settlers. 

So Walter Raleigh's efTorts to establish a colony in 
Virginia, like Columbus's efforts to find a western route 
to Asia, resulted in great good to those who lived after 
him. 

In later years the people of North Carolina named the 
capital city of their State Raleigh, in honor of the man 
who had started the idea of English colonies in America. 

Tell about the search for gold in America. How did this delay the settlement of the 
country ? Who was Queen Elizabeth ? Tell about Walter Raleigh's act of politeness. 
Who first claimed North America for England ? What was Raleigh's plan ? What did 
Queen Elizabeth think of it ? For what purpose did Raleigh's ships first sail to America ? 
Tell about the land visited. What name was given to it ? Tell of Raleigh's second expe- 
dition. What caused the failure of this settlement ? Tell about Raleigh's last attempt 
to make a settlement. (What do you suppose became of the settlers ?) How were tobacco 
and the potato introduced into England? What troubles befell Raleigh in his old age? 
(What two queens helped in the discovery and exploration of America? Compare the last 
days of Columbus and Raleigh.) What good resulted from Raleigh's failures ? What 
place is named for him ? 



34 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER III. 

Virginia and Her Neighbors. 



John Smith — Virginia, 
john smith helps to found a colony. 

A Successor to Raleigh Appears. — Walter Raleigh sent 
five expeditions to look for his lost colony. But they 
searched the Virginia woods in vain for traces of little 
Virginia Dare and her people. Raleigh himself was now 
in prison, and it looked 
as if his hopeful saying 
that he "would yet live to 
see Virginia an English 
nation" would never come 
true. About this time, 
however, there appeared 
in England, after a long 
absence on the continent 
of Europe, a young sol- 
dier who was destined 
a few years later to 
carry out Raleigh's 
plan. 

His Life of Adventure — This young man, twenty-five 
years old, bore the name of John Smith. His mother 
died when he was an infant. As soon as he was old 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 35 

enough to leave home httle John was sent to a boarding 
school. But he was too restless and mischievous to be 
a good pupil. He was planning to run away and become 
a sailor wdien the death of his father put an end to his 
school days. John was then set to work as a clerk 
in a store. But the life of a clerk was as distasteful to 
his restless spirit as the restraints of school had been. 
He left his native land, and became a soldier in wars 
against the Turks. We are told that once, while the 
opposing armies looked on, he overcame three Turks in 
sino-le combat, and, like David, cut off their heads and 
carried them to his tent. He w^as taken prisoner and 
made to work as a slave with a great iron ring riveted 
about his neck; but he killed his cruel master and 
escaped. He returned to England at a time when people 
were still talking about Raleigh's lost colony. 

America Attracts Him. — At the taverns, or hotels, which 
Captain Smith visited he met many other travelers, some 
of whom had just returned from the shores of America, 
and had many stories to tell of what they had seen in the 
New World. One of these American voyagers was a 
man named Gosnold, an experienced sea captain, who had 
visited the northern shores of Virginia. Gosnold told 
Smith so much of the beauty and fertility of the west- 
ern land that Smith was eager to visit it. So the two 
(Gosnold and Smith) decided to collect the vessels, men, 
and equipment necessary to cross the ocean, and estab- 
lish a settlement. Some rich merchants of the cities 
of London and Plymouth w^ere persuaded to form trad- 
ing companies. Two were formed; one was called the 
London Company, the other the Plymouth Company, 



36 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



and these companies agreed to furnish the money for the 
undertaking in return for a share in the profits that were 
expected from the trade of the proposed settlement. 

He Sails to Virginia. — One beautiful spring morning, 
not long after these events, three ships came in sight of 
the American coast, and entered the waters of a great 
bay that opens into the Atlantic, some distance north of 
the place where Raleigh's men had made their unlucky 
settlement twenty years before. These ships, as you may 
have guessed, bore Captain John Smith and Captain 
Gosnold. With them 
were a hundred men 
sent out by the London 
Company to establish 
a settlement in Ral- 
eigh's land of Vir- 
ginia. They coasted 
along the shores of 
this bay until they 
came to the . mouth 
of a large river. 

(Find on map the name of this bay.) Sailing up the 
stream, they finally anchored their ships close to a little 
peninsula on the north bank of the river. Here they 
landed, unloaded their stores of provisions, tools, and 
other supplies, and set to work. Some put up tents; 
others cut down trees with which to build a fort to pro- 
tect them from the Indians. They named this settlement 
Jamestown, in honor of King James TI, at that time king 
of England. The river they called King's River, or James 
River. This was in the year 1607. 




SETTLEMENTS IN VIRGINIA. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 37 

The Captain in Trouble — When the company landed, 
among their nnmber was one man held as prisoner by his 
companions. Strange to say, this prisoner was none 
other than Captain John Smith, despite the fact that the 
London Company had appointed him one of the five 
men who w^ere to govern the colony. Soon after the 
voyage began he had been arrested on the charge of 
planning to make himself king of Virginia. No doubt 
the other leaders were jealous of him, and no doubt, too. 
Smith had increased their jealousy by talking too much 
and too boastfully of his past adventures. On reaching 
Virginia his enemies wanted to get rid of him by sending 
him back to England. Smith demanded a trial, and a jury 
of twelve of his fellow-colonists declared him innocent 
and set him free. Moreover, they sentenced his prin- 
cipal accusers to pay the worthy captain a fine of $i,ooo 
for their unjust treatment of him. 

Working and Praying — A Good Beginning The log 

fort was soon completed, and then the men set to work 
on their own cabins, many of them sleeping meanwhile in 
the open air under the trees in the pleasant May weather. 
They next began to clear off the land, and prepare the 
soil for a corn crop. Each morning and evening they 
assembled in a rude tent which served as a church, and 
here, with a board nailed between two trees as his pulpit, 
the minister read the service of the Episcopal Church. 
Twice every Sunday they had preaching. In a short 
time a church building of logs took the place of the tent. 

Hot Weather Brings Sickness. — But troubles soon came 
thick and fast. The river bank where the settlement 
was made was low and marshy, and during the hot sum- 



^S THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

mer days the colonists were stricken with fever. Our 
fever medicine, quinine, which conies from the bark of a 
South American tree, was not at that time known. One 
half of the colonists died. Smith himself became ill, 
but he continued to nurse the sick, help bury the dead, 
and cheer up the living. At last autumn came with its 
cool winds driving away the malaria and bringing back 
health and strength. 

Idleness Brings Hunger — The supply of food brought 
by the colonists from England soon gave out. If all the 
men had worked diligently cultivating the soil they 
would still have had an abundance to eat. But a large 
number of the settlers were not used to work at home, and 
they could not be induced to work here. Farming was 
too difficult and too slow to suit these idlers. They 
wanted to get rich quickly without work. So they spent 
most of their time wandering about looking for gold. 
Captain Smith and some of the others set an example 
of hard work, but in spite of their labor there was not 
food enough for all, and soon the colony was threatened 
with starvation. 

What eflForls did Raleigh make to find his lost colonj'? What young adventurer returned 
to England about this time ? Tell about the boyhood of John Smith. What can you say of 
his life as a soldier? How did he become interested in America ? What plan did Smith 
and Gosnold form ? How were they enabled to carry out their plan ? Tell about the voy- 
age of the colonists and the beginning of their settlement. What trouble did Captain Smith 
get into while on his voyage to America? How did he get the best of his enemies ? Tell 
about the daily occupations of the first colonists. What misfortune happened to them the 
first summer ? Why were there so many idlers ? What was the result of the idleness ? 

JOHN SMITH SAVES VIRGINIA, 

Captain Smith Makes a Corn Trade. — But John Smith 
was not willing to starve. He led a force of men into the 
Indian country to get a supply of corn from the savages. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 39 

When the Indians refused to sell their grain Smith 
attacked them, and put them to flight. He captured their 
village, where he found plenty of corn. The Indians 
had all run away, but by the offer of beads and hatchets 
Smith induced six of them to return and load his boat. 
They were so surprised by the boldness of the captain 
and so pleased with the beads and hatchets that they all 
came from their hiding places. Then they brought not 
only corn, but venison and turkey and whatever other 
food they had, singing and dancing in sign of friendship. 
The Captain Explores the Country, and Gets Stuck in 
the Mud — With plenty of corn to supply their present 
needs, and with an abundance of wild fowl brought by the 
cold weather, the spirits of the colonists rose, and for a 
time they forgot their troubles. Captain Smith now began 
to explore the Chesapeake Bay and the rivers flowing 
into it. One day he and several companions sailed up the 
Chickahominy River, looking for the Pacific Ocean. They 
thought America was a narrow strip of land, and never 
dreamed that it was as wide as the ocean which separated 
them from England. Smith anchored his boat in the 
river, and with an Indian guide went into the w^oods to 
shoot some game for dinner. Suddenly he found himself 
surrounded by Indians whose dreadful yells were almost 
enough to make the stout-hearted captain tremble. He 
determined to make a brave fight, however, and, holding 
his Indian guide as a shield between him and his enemies, 
he began backing toward the river where he had left 
his companions. An arrow struck him in the leg. Smith 
then fired his gun into the crowd, and one of the Indians 
fell to the ground. The rest fled, but soon returned, 



40 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

fiercer than before. As the captain continued to step 
backward he suddenly sHpped up to his waist into a 
boggy creek, dragging his Indian guide with him. As 
he could not get out of the mud, and as he was growing 
numb with cold, he made signs that he would surrender. 

Caught at Last — The Indians pulled their captive out 
of the bog and warmed him by the fire. Then they would 
have killed him, but he was smart enough to present the 
chief with his pocket compass. The quivering needle 
protected by its glass case aroused the wonder of the 
Indians, as they tried in vain to touch it with their fin- 
gers. Smith increased their wonder by writing a letter 
to his friends at Jamestown, asking them to send him 
certain things which he named. This letter was carried 
to the settlement by an Indian messenger, who soon 
returned with the articles Smith had asked for. The 
poor Indians were now overcome with amazement. "The 
wdiite chief can make the dry leaf speak," they said. They 
were proud of their prisoner, and fed him so bountifully 
that the captain said afterward, "This plan of cramming 
me did sorely grieve me, for I surely thought they were 
about to fat me, in order to eat me." 

Saved by an Indian Girl — Smith was led in triumph 
from one Indian village to another, until at length he was 
brought before the king of all the Indians in this region, 
Powhatan by name. Powhatan, dressed in a robe made 
of raccoon skins, and with feathers in his hair, was 
seated on a raised platform in a long, arbor-like house. 
By his order Smith was condemned to die. Tying his 
hands, they laid the captain's head upon a great rock, 
and a powerful Indian, with uplifted club, stood ready to 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 



41 



beat out his brains. At this moment Pocahontas, the 
chief's daughter, a maiden of twelve or thirteen years, 
ran forward and, bending over the prisoner, took his head 




Ei)u^ Powhatan cowatiJs CSmuh to bf^^4$^^^ 
tnfS rtadf.^ nijhny 



dhow he SubierTed 3.9 of their ktnfj- r^^AAifh 



{A picture in Smith's dook.) 

POCAHONTAS SAVING CAPTAIN SMITH. 

in her arms. Out of love for his daughter the old chief 
ordered the captive's life to be spared, and directed that 
he be put to work making bells, beads, and toys for little 
Pocahontas. 



42 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The Captain Returns to Jamestown After several 

months of captivity King Powhatan told Captain Smith 
he could return to Jamestown, but he must send back two 
cannons and a grindstone. Smith readily agreed to this. 
So he joyfully set out through the woods, accompanied 
by several guides who were to bring back the presents. 
To show them the power of a cannon, Smith, on reach- 
ing the settlement, ordered a shot fired into the ice-laden 
trees. At the roar of the cannon and the sight of the 
falling ice and broken branches the frightened savages 
took to their heels. When they returned they declared 
the cannons and grindstone were too heavy to carry, and 
they accepted instead some beads and trinkets. 

Captain Smith Becom.es Governor, and Makes Some New 
Laws. — The first rulers of Jamestown were unfit to govern 
the settlement. Two of them in succession were put out of 
office by the disgusted colonists. At last the settlers saw 
that their only hope was Captain Smith, so they made him 
take control of the colon}-. The captain ruled with a 
strong hand. He made a law that "he who will not work 
shall not eat," and men then began to work who had never 
worked before. When the labor of swinging the ax blis- 
tered their tender hands they cursed so long and loud 
that "at every third blow the echo was drowned by an 
oath." Smith ordered their oaths to be counted, and at 
night, when work was over, the swearers were placed in 
line, and each was made to hold up his arms, while one 
can of cold water was poured down his sleeve for every 
oath he uttered during the day. This "cold-water cure" 
worked like a charm. All day long the chips flew, with 
few wicked oaths to disturb the peaceful echoes. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 43 

Captain Smith Leaves Virginia — Thus, time and again, 
tiie sturdy arm and bold heart of Captain Smith saved the 
colony. But, although he kept them from starving, his 
enemies did not cease to hate him. Afraid to oppose him 
in Virginia, they carried to England false charges against 
him. A ship from England brought the report that he 
had been removed from ofiice by the London Company. 
Smith refused to believe the story, and threw into prison 
those who resisted his authority. One day, however, 
when in a boat on the James River, a bag of gunpowder 
near him exploded, burning his flesh in a fearful manner, 
lie jumped into the water and came near being drowned. 
Tortured by tlie pain of his wound and expecting every 
day to receive notice of his removal, his stout heart failed 
him at last. So he decided to leave his enemies to their 
triumph, and to go to England and have his wound 
treated. 

Last Days of the Bold Captain. — Captain Smith sailed 
away from Virginia never to return. His wound healed, 
and he afterward visited America, exploring the coast of 
\\hat is now^ New England, but not attempting to make 
a settlement. Later he again started to America, but 
his ship was captured by a French vessel, and the cap- 
tain was taken prisoner to Erance. Escaping from his 
captors, he returned to England, and spent his last days 
in London writing histories of the Jamestown settlement 
and of his own exploits. This ''first American ruler and 
writer" lies buried in a London church, with his shield 
and three Turks' heads carved on his tombstone, and the 
inscription beneath : "Here lies one conquered, that hath 
conquered kings." 



44 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Tell about Captain Smith's corn trade. Tell of Smith's exploration of the country and 
his capture by the Indians. How did he keep the Indians from killing him ? Why was 
the captain uneasy when they fed him so well? Who was Pocahontas, and how did she 
save Captain Smith's life ? Tell about Smith's release and return to Jamestown. What 
kind of rulers did Jamestown have at first ? Tell about Captain Smith's rule. How did 
Smith's enemies try to injure him? Why did he return to England? What exploration 
did he afterward make ? Tell of his last days. 



VIRGINIA AFTER CAPTAIN SMITH S DEPARTURE. 

Virginia Abandoned — It was not long after Caj^tain 
Smith sailed away from Virginia before even his worst 
enemies wished him back. The Indians no sooner heard 
that the nnconquerable captain was gone than they began 
to attack and mnrder the settlers. The leaders of the col- 
ony quarreled among themselves as to who should rule. 
The food gave out again, and the Indians could not be 
induced to furnish a mouthful. Forced to live on roots 
and acorns and the fiesh of horses, very many died of hun- 
ger. In this terrible "starving time" the colony was 
reduced from five hundred to sixty. In despair these 
weak, half-starved survivors decided to leave Jamestown 
forever. They buried their cannons, and all got aboard 
two small ships and started down the river, leaving James- 
town with its rows of log houses, its church, storehouse, 
and fort all silent and deserted. The Jamestown settle- 
ment was about to end in failure, as had the colonies of 
Sir Walter Raleigh on the Carolina coast. 

Virginia Saved — But a great surprise was in store for 
the departing colonists. They were hardly out of sight 
of the abandoned settlement when they met three English 
ships coming up the river bearing Lord Delaware, the 
new "Governor and Captain-general" of Virginia, with 
several hundred colonists and a year's provisions. Joy- 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 45 

fully all returned to Jamestown. As soon as the new gov- 
ernor touched the shore he knelt down and thanked God 
that he had come in time to save Virginia. The buried 
cannons were dug up and mounted in the fort. Lord Del- 
aware put everybody to work, and once more the Virgin- 
ians seemed happy and prosperous. 

A Virginia Wedding. — Pocahontas, the Indian girl who 
had saved Captain John Smith's life, continued to be a 
good friend of the. whites. She often visited Jamestown, 
bringing baskets of corn and acting as peacemaker when 
war between her people and the settlers was threatened. 
One of the Englishmen, John Rolfe by name, fell in love 
with the sweet-tempered, graceful maiden. She agreed to 
marry him, and the consent of old father Powhatan and 
of the governor of the colony was obtained. The old 
chief, however, would not come to his daughter's mar- 
riage, but he sent an uncle and two brothers of Pocahontas 
in his place. A crowd of colonists, doubtless, thronged the 
flower-decked church at Jamestown to see the wedding 
ceremony. A short time before her marriage Pocahontas 
had been received into the Church, and the name Rebecca 
had been given her. She and her husband after- 
ward visited England, where as ''Lady Rebecca" she was 
kindly received by the king and queen. Here she met 
her old friend, John Smith, whom she had thought to 
be dead. She died before her return to Virginia, leaving 
a little son, Thomas, who became a gentleman of "note 
and fortune" in Virginia and the ancestor of some prom- 
inent families in the State. 

Tobacco and Slaves. — The year before his marriage 
with Pocahontas, John Rolfe had planted a field with 



46 THE beginner's history of our 



COUNTRY. 



T^i^^K^Hfi^^^^^^^^iW 




MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. \J 

tobacco. He raised a large crop, which he shipped to 
England and sold for a hne price. The Virginians saw 
they could make more money raising tobacco than 
in any other way. Every colonist who had a piece of 
land i)lanted some tobacco. Woods were cleared, and 
new ground cultivated for this profitable crop. When, a 
few years later, a Dutch ship offered for sale at Jamestown 
twenty negro slaves, the colonists bought them to work 
their tobacco plantations. Finding the negroes well 
suited to this kind of labor, the Virginians w^ere willing 
to pay a good price for them, and afterward English ships 
and ships from the colony of Massachusetts brought large 
numbers of the Africans to Virginia and to other English 
colonies that by that time had been established. 

No More Homesickness and Idleness The same year 

that the first shipload of African slaves arrived at James- 
town another ship touched at the same wharf, laden with 
a cargo that brought more of real happiness and prosperity 
to the colony than any shipload that arrived before or 
since. The great need of the first Virginians was wives 
to make happy homes. The first settlers were men and 
boys, and during the first ten years hardly any women 
came over. With no merry, romping children, no sweet- 
faced girls, no gentle, thoughtful wives and mothers in 
all the colony, it is no wonder the men w^ere idle and quar- 
relsome; and when the fever came, w^ithout woman's 
tender nursing, no w-onder so many of them died. The 
wise heads of the London Company at last found out 
what was the matter with their colony, and they induced 
sixty rosy-cheeked English maidens to take pity on the 
lonesome Virginia bachelors, and to cross the ocean to 



48 THE beginner's history of our country. 



cheer them up. At Jamestown a crowd of men met the 
maidens at the v.harf, and the courting began at once. 
As soon as a Virginian persuaded a girl to accept him he 
paid the ship captain her fare from England, and they 
hurried away and were married. These marriages proved 
to be so happy that more young English women agreed 




RUINS OF JAMESTOWN. 

to come to Virginia, and there were more marriages on 
their arrival. New settlements were made on the banks 
of the James and other Virginia rivers, and the colony 
became firmly established. 

The King's Governor Resisted. — Many of the governors 
of Virginia, like John Smith and Lord Delaware, ruled 
wisely and well. Governor Berkeley, however, was one 
who treated the people badly. \Mien a young planter 
named Nathaniel Bacon raised a company of men to 
defend their homes against the Indians Governor Berkeley 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 49 

ordered him to be arrested. Bacon then made war on 
the governor and chased him out of Jamestown and set 
fire to the place. Thus, in that olden time, the Virginians 
showed that they were not afraid to resist the king's of- 
ficers when those officers trampled on their rights. Bacon 
died of fever in the midst of his success, and Governor 
Berkeley returned; but Jamestown was never rebuilt. 
Williamsburg, a new town on a higher and more health- 
ful situation, became the capital of the colony. 

The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Governor Spotts- 

wood, a later governor, had the adventurous spirit of 
Governor John Smith. He led a company of explorers 
and hunters beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains into the 
beautiful valley of the Shenandoah. The horses of the 
party were shod — something unusual in those days — as 
a protection against the rocky mountain roads. On his 
return Governor Spottswood sent to London, and had 
made for each of his companions a small golden horse- 
shoe, which became the badge of the "Knights of the 
Golden Horseshoe." Another act of Governor Spotts- 
wood, of more importance than his expedition beyond 
the mountains, was his directing the establishment of 
the first iron furnace in America, thus turning the atten- 
tion of the Virginians to the production of iron, with 
which their mountains are filled. 

Virginia Becomes a Large and Powerful Colony. — One 
hundred and fifty years after the death of Captain John 
Smith the struggling settlement at Jamestown, which he 
had so often saved from ruin, had become the power- 
ful colony of Virginia. Virginians gradually moving 
westward had passed beyond, first, the Blue Ridge, 



50 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

then tlie Alleghanies, and had taken possession of what is 
now the State of Kentnckv. Extending- from the At- 
lantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, \ irginia also 
claimed the region northwest as far as the Great Lakes. 
Twelve other English colonies hv this time had heen 
established in North America, bnt \'iri?inia was the larj^- 
est and richest of them all. 

What troubles befell the Virginians after the departure of Smith ? Tell of the coming of 
Lord Delaware ; of the wedding of Pocahontas ; of her life after her marriage. Tell 
about the beginning of tobacco planting in Virginia; about the introduction of negro 
slaves; about the coming of Knglish maidens. Who was Nathaniel Bacon ? Tell of Ba- 
con's warfare with Governor Berkeley; of Governor Spottswood's journey into the valley 
of Virginia; of tlie progress of the Virginia colony. 

\'irgixia's Northern Neighbor — Maryland. 

Why the Colony was Founded. — When Jamestown had 
been settled abont twent\-tive years, and the \'irginians 
had gotten bra\ely o\er their early troubles from hunger, 
sickness, and the Indians, and were beginning to get rich 
from their great tobacco plantations, a new colony was 
formed on their northern border. The founder of this 
new colony was Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic noble- 
man, who had held high olHce in England and had at one 
time been a member of the \'irginia Company. The law 
of England in those days placed many hardships upon 
members of the Roman Catholic Church, among other 
things imposing a heavy hue upon those who refused to 
attend the services of the Church of England. Lord Bal- 
timore wished to establish a colony in America where his 
Roman Catholic brethren would be free to practice their 
religion without interference. 

The Grant of Land and the Name of the Colony. — King 
Charles I, who was a good friend of Lord Baltimore, gave 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 




him a tract of land north of the Potomac River, including 
the present States of Maryland and Delaware, and part 
of Pennsylvania and 
West Virginia. Like 
Virginia, the new col- 
ony was named in hon- 
or of a ([neen. The 
wife of King Charles 
was Henrietta Maria, a 
French lady, and a 
member of the Roman 
Catholic Church, 
Maria is the same as 
Mary in English, and 
the king called the land 

1 1 1*^ • , T 1 GEOROECALVERT, FIRST LORD BALTIMORE. 

he had given to Lord 

Baltimore Mary's land, or Maryland, in honor of the 

queen. 

Lord Baltimore Dies. His Son Carries Out His Plan Just 

as his grant was obtained Lord Baltimore died. His 
eldest son, who now became Lord Baltimore, received the 
grant, and proceeded to carry out his father's ])lan. This 
son intended to cross the ocean with his first colonists, 
but he afterward decided he had better stay at home to 
keep his enemies from persuading the king to take back 
his American territory. About three hundred colonists, 
with the younger brother of the second Lord Baltimore as 
governor, sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and up the 
Potomac River. "Never," \\'rote one of the colonists, 
''have I seen a larger or more beautiful river. The 
Thames seems a mere brook in comparison with it. Fine 



THE BEGIN XER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




groves of trees appear, not choked with hushes, hut grow- 
ing far apart, so that you might easily drive a four-horse 
carriage through the midst of the trees." 

A Settlement Formed. — ;Many Indians appeared on the 
bank of the river. They were struck with wonder at the 
size of the ships. The Indians made their boats, or canoes, 
of a single log hollowed out, and they wondered where 
the trees grew big enough to 
make so monstrous a canoe as 
that in which the white men 
sailed. \Vhen Governor Calvert 
landed to look for a place for 
a settlement the chief received him 
very kindly, invited him to stay 
all night, gave him his own bed 
to sleep on, and spent the next day 
in showing him the country. On 
the north bank of the Potomac was an Indian town which 
the owners agreed to sell to the whites in return for axes, 
hoes, and cloth. The Indians gave up one half of the town 
at once, and promised to give up the other half as soon as 
their crops were gathered. The colonists named their 
settlement St. Clary's, in honor of the A'irgin Mary. 

Maryland Gets a Good Start. — The colonists had their 
hardships, but these hardships did not come at first, as 
had been the case at Jamestown. St. Clary's was situated 
in a healthful place. The colonists had the cleared fields. 
which they had bought from the Indians, and huts already 
built to protect them from the weather until more sub- 
stantial homes could be made. The Indian men taught 
the settlers how to hunt deer, while the women showed 



SETTLEMENTS IN MARY- 
LAND. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 53 

them how to cook in the ashes a corn-meal cake which 
they called ''pone/' and also how to make *' ominie" 
(our hominy) out of corn parched, broken, and boiled. 
The Indians also treated their new friends to j^oiled 
and roasted oysters from the famous oyster beds of the 
Chesapeake. 

Troubles Come. — Lord Baltimore allowed no one in his 
colony to be disturbed on account of his religion, provided 
he believed in Christ. So Protestants as well as Roman 
Catholics were among the settlers. After a while the 
Protestants outnumbered the Roman Catholics, and, sad 
to say, when they got control of the colony they passed 
laws that Roman Catholic worship should be prohibited 
in Maryland, that no Roman Catholic should vote or hold 
office, and that Lord Baltimore had no rights in the col- 
ony. There was fighting between the Protestant and 
Roman Catholic settlers. Finally the English govern- 
ment restored Lord Baltimore to the rule of Maryland, 
and freedom of worship was again established. 

Boundary Disputes — The Marylanders had disputes 
over the boundary of their colony with both their north- 
ern and their southern neighbors. The Virginians claimed 
that Maryland was included in their grant. A Virginia 
colonist who had some land in the territory granted to 
Lord Baltimore refused to pay taxes to the government of 
Maryland, and raised some troops to resist Lord Balti- 
more's officers. After considerable disturbance he was 
finally driven out. There was also a dispute over the 
boundary between Maryland and her northern neighbor, 
Pennsylvania. Both these colonies finally agreed that two 
surveyors, Mason and Dixon, should establish the correct 



54 



THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



boundary. The line they tixed was marked at the end of 
every fifth mile by a stone with the coat-of-amis of 
William Penn on the north side, and of Lord Baltimore 
on the south. In later years it happened that the States 
north of this line all ceased to hold slaves, while those 
south of the line continued to be slave-holding. The line 
then became famous as "Mason and Dixon's Line." Con- 
tinuing westward along the Ohio River, it marked the 
knmdary between the "free" and the '"slave" States. 

Growth of Maryland. — The soil of :\Laryland is verv 
much like that of X'irginia. As in Mrginia, tobacco be- 
came the chief crop of the 
people of ^Laryland, and ne- 
gro slaves were used to cul- 
tivate it. After a while 
wheat began to be raised 
also. The wheat was 
groimd into flour, and thou- 
sands of barrels of it were 
shipped to the other colonies and to England. For a long- 
time St. Mary's was the capital of the colony. Then the 
capital was moved to the town of Annapolis (named for 
Queen Anne of England), and St. Mary's, like James- 
town, was deserted. Nearly a hundred years after the 
founding of St. ^Lary's the town of Baltimore was laid 
out on the shore of the Chesapeake. It gTCw rapidly, 
and for many years has been the largest city south of 
^lason and Dixon's Line. 

Who was Lord BaUimor* ? Why did he wish to establish a colony in America ? ^^'hat 
land was given to Baltimore for his colony ? Explain the name of the colony. Tell about 
the death of the tir^-i l.orvl Baltimore and how his pl.m of a colony was c.irried out. Where 
was the settlement made ? How were the colonists received by the Indians ? What was 




NDIAN rHL\CE PIPE. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 55 

the name of their first setllomcot ? Tell about Maryland's sood start. What troubles 
arose between Protestants and Catholics? Tell about the two boundary disputes and liow 
they were settled. Tell of the growth of Maryland. 

Virginia's Twin Southern Neighbors — The Car- 

OLINAS. 

The First White Settlers in Carolina The reeion first 

known as "Virginia" which Oueen Elizabeth gave to Sir 
Waher Raleigh, and which King James II afterward gave 
to the London Company, stretched far south of the 
present State of V^irginia. Yet for a long time after 
Jamestown was founded there were no white settle- 
ments in the southern half of the great territory of 
Virginia. True, even before Raleigh's ships landed here, 
some Frenchmen had 1)uih a fort on the coast not far 
north of the Savannah River, and had named this fort 
Carolina, after their King Charles, or Carolus. They 
expected to make a permanent settlement and hold the 
country for France, l)ut when their food gave out and 
the Indians became unfriendly they Ijuilt a little ship out 
of the logs of the forest and sailed away. It is probable 
that some of these returning French Carolinians landed 
in England, and were the first to tell Queen Elizabeth 
about this beautiful land, which her favorite, Raleigh, 
afterward tried to colonize. Raleigh's settlements were 
made in this same region, but some distance north of the 
deserted French fort of Carolina. The story of how his 
settlements ended in failure has already been told. 

The English Colony of Carolina Formed. — Just one hun- 
dred years after the French fort of Carolina was deserted 
King Charles TI of England gave to six of his friends the 
entire region south of Virginia as far as Spanish Florida. 



56 



THE BEGIXXER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



The name of Carolina, iirst given in honor of the French 
King Charles, was retained, since the reigning king of 
England was also a Charles. A company of \'irginians 
had already come through the woods and had made the 
tirst settlement not far from where Raleigh's colony stood. 
Two shiploads of French Protestants, or Huguenots, 
landed further south and founded the city of Charleston. 

Other settlers came from 
the West India Islands, 
from Europe, and from 
the older American col- 
onies. 

Bad Government 

The proprietors of Car- 
olina soon showed that 
they knew little ahout 
governing a colony. A 
set of laws was prepared 
by them which gave all 
power in the colony to 
the noblemen and no 
rights at all to the com- 
mon people. For twen- 
ty years the proprietors 
tried to force these ab- 
surd laws on their col- 
onists, and at last had to give up the attempt. The gov- 
ernors appointed by the proprietors were sometimes so 
tyrannical and worthless that the people refused to obey 
them, and even chased them from the colony. 

The Carolina Pine Trees. — In spite of bad rulers the col- 







CAROLINA FORESTS. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 



57 



ony of Carolina grew in numbers and in wealth. In the 
northern half of the colony were great forests of pine 
trees. These pine trees not only afforded line timber for 
making ships, but from them great quantities of pitch, 
tar, rosin, and turpentine were obtained. In those days, 
when ships were made altogether of wood, instead of 
with iron bottoms, as to-day, pitch and tar were needed to 
preserve the vessels from leaking, and these articles 
brought a good price in Europe. With their axes the col- 
onists cut great notches in the trunks of the pine trees 
near the ground. Then large kettles were so placed as 
to catch the streams of sap. This sap was afterward 
bin led and i)repared for market. So many of the col- 
onists of northern Carolina were engaged in this industry 




RICE HARVEST. 



that the name ''tar-heels" was jokingly given them by 
their neighbi^'s. 

The Pahnetto Tree and the Rice Plant. — In southern Car- 
olina another kind of tree, the palmetto, was found which 
proved very useful to the colonists. From one sort of 
palmetto they obtained a food like cabbage, and from the 



58 THE BEGIXXER's HISTORY OF OUR COUXTRY. 

leaves of a tougher sort were made hats, ropes, and fans. 
The pahiietto logs made splendid material for building 
forts, since the wood was so spongy that cannon balls 
sank into it without splitting or weakening it. When 
southern Carolina became a separate colony she placed a 
picture of a palmetto tree on her dag, and to-day the 
State is known as the "Palmetto State." But more val- 
uable even than the palmetto tree was the rice plant. A 
ship captain returning from a voyage to islands near the 
African coast brought back a bag of rice which he gave to 
the governor. .Vt that time rice was something little 
known to the people of Europe, although for ages it had 
been the food of millions in China and Japan. The gov- 
ernor of Carolina had his rice planted, and found that the 
swampy lands exactly suited it. The rice grown in 
southern Carolina proved to be the best in the world, and 
it soon became the chief crop of the colony. To work the 
rice plantations many negro slaves were brotight from 
Africa. Southern Carolina soon had more slaves in 
proportion to its poptilation than any other colony. 

Carolina Divided. — I-\->r sixty-six years the colony of 
Carolina was governed by Proprietors. The Proprietors 
then gave up their riglits to the king, and Carolina was 
divided into two colonies. Xorth Carolina and South 
Carolina. In Xorth Carolina the town of Raleigh, named 
in honor of the great Sir A\^alter, who first tried to make a 
settlement on her shores, became the capital of the colony. 
In South Carolina Charleston was made the capital, and 
became one of the largest and richest towns in all the 
American colonies. 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 59 

Who first owned the country south of the present State of Virginia? Tell about the 
efforts of the French to make settlements in this region. What did these French failures 
probably lead to ? What grant of land in this region did King Charles II make. Explain 
the name of the colony. Tell of the first settlements. What bad government did the 
Carolinians endure ? What use did the colonists make of their pine forests? of their 
palmetto trees? Tell about the beginning of rice culture in South Carolina. How did 
rice culture affect the number of slaves ? Tell of the division of Carolina into two colonies. 



Virginia's Youngest Neighbor — Georgia. 

A New Colony. — \\ hen Virginia had grown to be a pow- 
erful colony one hundred and twenty-live years of age, 
and when her twin^ southern neighbors had become 
firmly established and had been separated into North and 
South Carolina, a new colony was founded on the south- 
ern border of South Carolina — a colony which was at 
once the youngest and the most southern of all the thir- 
teen sisters. 

The Poor Debtors of Engiand — To understand how^ this 
youngest colony came to be founded we must remember 
that at one time it was the law in England that a man who 
did not pay his debts could be put in jail. We know that 
it is dishonest for a man to fail to pay his just debts, if 
he is able to do so. But sometimes a man gets into debt 
through no fault of his own, as by sickness, or accident, 
or rascality of others, and is unable to pay what he owes. 
No matter how the debt was caused, by the English law 
the debtor could be thrown into prison, and kept there 
until the debt was paid. If the poor man had a family, 
his wife and children were thus left without support. 
Hundreds of men and women were kept in prison until 
their death, and were cruelly treated by their jailers, all 
on account of some small debt they were unable to pay. 

The Cruel Treatment of a Poor Debtor Awakens the In- 



6o 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



dilation of His Friend. — Among the wretched prisoners 
wearing away their lives in the debtors' jail was a Mr. 
Robert Castell, a scholar and writer who had once lived 
in a comfortable home with his wife and little children, 
but who unfortunately made debts he was unable to pay. 
Because Castell failed to give the keeper of the jail the 
"present" of money which was demanded of all the pris- 
oners, the cruel jailer ordered him locked up in a house 

where smallpox raged. 
Poor Castell took the small- 
pox and died in a few days, 
charging the jailer with his 
death. It happened that 
Castell had a friend named 
James Oglethorpe, once a 




OGLETHORPE. 



soldier, then a member of 
the English Parliament. 
When Oglethorpe heard of 
the cruel death of his friend 
he was filled with indigna- 
tion. He began to exam- 
ine the debtors' prisons, 
and found cruelties even 
more horrible than those from which his friend had suf- 
fered. He induced Parliament to pass laws to lessen the 
sufferings of the poor debtors. He formed a plan to re- 
lease many of them from prison and to offer them homes 
in America. 

Oglethorpe's Plan to Help the Debtors — An association 
was formed, with Oglethorpe as president, to found a col- 
ony in America "in trust for the poor." Their motto was 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 



6l 



a Latin phrase meaning, "Not for themselves, but for 
others." The king (George II) approved the plan of the 
"trustees/' as they were called, and gave them the region 
between the Savannah River and the Spanish possessions 
in Florida. The name Georgia was given to the new 
colony in honor of the king. 

Oglethorpe's Colony Founded. — Many kind-hearted per- 
sons in England subscribed money to secure the release of 
debtors, and to start them in their new homes. General 
Oglethorpe himself accompanied the first shipload of col- 
onists. They stopped at Charleston for a few hours, and 
the governor of South Carolina made Oglethorpe a pres- 
ent of cattle, hogs, and rice. The Carolinians were well 




'lllE COLONY OF GEORGIA. 



pleased to have a colony established as a barrier between 
them and the Spaniards of Florida. Entering the Savan- 
nah River in February, 1733, Oglethorpe selected a place 
for a settlement, which he named Savannah, from the In- 
dian name of the river. 

Oglethorpe and Mary Musgrove. — Like William Penn, 
Oglethorpe was just in his dealings with the Indians, and 



62 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



no colony had so little trouble with the savages as Georgia 
and Pennsylvania. Among the Indians who greeted Ogle- 
thorpe on his arrival was a woman named Mary Mus- 
grove, whose mother was an Indian, and whose father 
was a white Canadian trader. Mary Musgrove spoke 
both the English and the Indian languages, so Oglethorpe 
employed her as his interpreter and paid her a good salary. 







OGLETHORPE'S COUNCIL WITH THE INULVNS. 



The Indian Chiefs Called Together. — Soon after his set- 
tlement was made Oglethorpe invited all the neighboring 
chiefs to a meeting, that he might make an agreement 
with them about land for his colonists. The Indians took 
their seats in a circle and rose in turn to speak. When it 
came to the turn of Tomochichi, chief of the tribe living 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 63 

next to the white settlement, the old Indian bowed very 
low and- said : "When your people came here I feared you 
would drive us away, for we were weak and wanted corn ; 
but you let us keep our land, gave us food, and taught our 
children. The chief men of all our nation are here to 
thank you for us. We all love your people so well that 
with them we will live and die." 

Tomochichi's Present. — Then Tomochichi handed Ogle- 
thorpe a buffalo skin painted on the inside with the head 
and feathers of an eagle. "Here is a little present," he 
said. "The whites are swift as the eagle, flying to the 
farthest parts of the earth over great seas. They are 
strong as the buffalo, for nothing can withstand them. 
The feathers of the eagle are soft, and signify love; the 
buffalo skin is warm, and signifies protection. Therefore 
we hope that you will love and protect our little families." 

Agreement with the Indians — At this meeting the In- 
dians gave to the whites a large tract of land south of the 
Savannah River. Oglethorpe agreed not to let the white 
traders charge above a certain rate for their goods. The 
price of a white blanket, for example, should be one deer- 
skin; of a blue blanket, five deerskins; of a gun, ten deer- 
skins. General Oglethorpe then presented the chiefs with 
laced hats, coats, and shirts; to the warriors he gave guns, 
tobacco, and other presents; and all went away happy. 

Tomochichi's Friendship for the Whites. — Like Powhatan 
in Virginia, Tomochichi was the firm friend of the whites. 
Once an Indian chief who thought he had been wronged 
by a white man declared he was going to kill all the 
English. Tomochichi tried to dissuade him from his pur- 
pose, and finally laid bare his breast before the angry 



64 THE beginner's history of our country. 

chief, crying out, "If you wish to kill anyone, kill me; 
for I am an Englishman!" He then proved to the chief 
that the story of the wrong done him was all a mistake, 
and thus saved the whites from an attack. 

Tomochichi Visits England. — Tomochichi, with his wife, 
nephew, and several other Indians, accompanied his 
friend Oglethorpe to England. They were received with 
great honors. Tomochichi and his wife were dressed in 
scarlet and gold. The whole party were driven to the 
royal palace in the king's coaches, each coach drawn by 
six horses. Tomochichi was filled with wonder at 
the magnificent houses of London and the wealth and 
splendor on every side. On his return to Georgia he said : 
"The Great vSpirit has given the English great wisdom, 
power, and riches so that they need nothing. To the 
Indians he has given great lands, but they need every- 
thing." He urged his people to allow the English to set- 
tle among them on such lands as they themselves did not 
need, so that the Indians might be supplied with plows, 
axes, and the many articles the English possessed. 

Death of Tomochichi — When Tomochichi was an old 
man a fever attacked him, and he lay dying on a 
blanket in his wigwam. Beside him sat his wife fanning 
him with a fan of feathers. His good friend Oglethorpe 
was there, too, doing what he could to make the old man 
comfortable. With his last words the old chief expressed 
his love for Oglethorpe, and advised his people to con- 
tinue in their friendship for the English. He asked that 
his body might be buried among the English in the town 
of Savannah. His wish was carried out. General Ogle- 
thorpe, the officers of the town, and a great crowd of 



VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 65 

whites and Indians attended the funeral. Guns were fired 
from the fort in honor of the good chief as his body was 
lowered into the grave. 

Last Days of Oglethorpe. — Like his friend Tomochichi, 
General Oglethorpe lived to be nearly a hundred years old. 
Not only poor debtors, but persecuted Protestants, were 
invited to settle in his colony. Many came from Germany 
and from Scotland. The Spaniards of Florida claimed 
Georgia as part of their territory, and tried to drive out 
the English. But General Oglethorpe raised an army, 
drove back the Spaniards, and saved his colony. When 
Georgia was twenty-one years old the "trustees" gave up 
the rule of the colony to the king, and Oglethorpe returned 
to England. He never ceased to be the friend of the people 
of America. When Georgia and her sister colonies in 
later years were at war with the mother country, England, 
the command of an English army was offered to General 
Oglethorpe. But he refused to fight against the Amer- 
ican colonists. He Jived to see the Americans successful 
in the war, and Georgia and the other colonies independ- 
ent States. General Oglethorpe spent a large part of his 
fortune bringing colonists from Europe and securing 
homes for them. Unlike William Penn and Lord Balti- 
more, he obtained no rich estates in the colony which 
he founded. A splendid example of unselfish work in 
helping the poor and oppressed is left to us by James 
Oglethorpe. 

When was the youngest English colony founded ? What was the old English law about 
debtors ? Tell about the cruel treatment of the debtor Robert Castell. What effect did 
the death of Castell have upon his friend James Oglethorpe ? What plan did Oglethorpe 
form to help the debtors ? Tell about the founding of Oglethorpe's colony ; about Mary 
Musgrove ; about the meeting of Oglethorpe and the Indian chiefs ; about Tomochichi's 
present. What bargain did Oglethorpe make with the Indians? Tell how Tomochichi 
proved his friendship for the whites. Tell about Tomochichi's visit to England; about 
the death of Tomochichi; about the last days of Oglethorpe. 



66 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Massachusetts and Her Neighbors. 



gold, or, if lie failed in these, to get tish and fnrs 



^Iyles Stan dish — Massachusetts, 
the coming of the pilgrims. 
Captain John Smith Explores and Names New England. — 
After Captain John Smith left Mrginia he was employed 
by the Plymouth Company of England to visit the north- 
ern coast of America. He went to catch whales or to find 

In the 
matter of fish and fnrs 
he was successful, and 
while engaged in col- 
lecting his cargo he ex- 
plored the coast from 
Elaine to Cape Cod. 
lie made a map of the 
region, and named it 
Xew England. The 
Plymouth C o m p a n y 
were so pleased, with 
what the captain had 
done that they called 
him "Admiral of Xew England." 

The Coming of the First Few England Home Builders. — 
A few years after Admiral Smith's explorations of this 
region an English ship loaded with home seekers came in 




WHKRE THE PILGRIM I ANDKD 



MASSACHUSETTS AND HER NEIGHBORS. (yj 

sight of that part of the New England coast that thrusts 
out into the Atlantic the narrow, hook-shaped tongue of 
land now known as Cape Cod. No flower-decked fields, 
no balmy breezes of springtime, welcomed these newcom- 
ers. The bleak November winds that swept through the 
lealless trees and scattered the snow over barren sands 
sounded a cheerless greeting to the good ship Mayflozver, 
and to the shivering people who thronged her deck. Un- 
like the first Virginia colonists, this company included 
women and children. After their long and stormy voy- 
age the boys and girls must have been heartily tired of the 
ship, and no doubt they begged their parents to disembark 
at once. The leaders of the colony, however, wished to 
sail farther south, but the sailors wdio controlled the ship 
declared the weather was too stormy to proceed farther. 
So it was decided to select a place here for a settlement. 
The Pilgrims of England, and Why Some of Them Went 
to Holland. — To understand who these colonists were, and 
why they came to America, you must know that they be- 
longed to a class of people living in England three hun- 
dred years ago who did not believe in worshiping God in 
the same way that most of the English people did. They 
thought certain customs of the English churchmen were 
wrong, and that some of their beliefs were not according 
to the Bible. So these people — afterward called "Pil- 
grims'' because of their wanderings — refused to attend 
the regular churches, and instead had meetings at their 
homes or at the homes of their ministers. They were fined 
and imprisoned for not attending church, but this only 
made them more determined than ever. The officers of 
the law broke up their public meetings, and they had to 



6S THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

assemble secretly. So much trouble did these Pilgrims 
have that at last some of them decided to leave their 
country and go across the Xorth Sea to Holland, where 
people were allowed to worship God as they pleased. 

They are Dissatisfied with Their Home in Holland. 
— \Mien the king's ottlcers learned of the intended de- 
parture of the Pilgrims they arrested those preparing 
to set out. }yIost of them managed to escape from 
England, however, and in the free land of Holland made 
new homes, and worshiped God in their own way. 
But there were several things that prevented them from 
being happy in Holland. They dearly loved their, English 
language and their English customs, and it made them sad 
to see their children learning to use the language of their 
Dutch playmates more readily than their mother tongue, 
and when their girls grew up and married the young 
Hollanders, and when their boys joined the Dutch armies 
or became officers in the Dutch government, it seemed 
that even the memory of old England would be lost. 
The news of the success of the Jamestown settlement 
turned their thoughts to America. They determined to 
move once more, and to build a new En^-land bevond the 
sea. 

They Sail to America. — But, like Christopher Columbus, 
the Pilgrims were too poor to hire the ships that were 
necessary to carry them across the ocean. They wrote 
to their friends in England, and at last some rich Eng- 
lish merchants were persuaded to lend them money for 
the voyage. With all the help thev could get, however, 
they were able to hire only one ship, and that a small, 
leaky one. As this little ship could not carry all the Pil- 



MASSACHUSETTS AND TIER NEIGHBORS. 



69 



grinis who wanted to go, they chose the youngest and 
strongest of their number, thinking tliat these could best 
endure the dangers and priva- 
tions that lay before them. 
There was one soldier in the 
company. Captain Myles Stan- 
dish, who had left his home 
in England years before to 
fight in the wars of Holland. 
He was not himself a member 
of the Pilgrim congregation, 
but the Pilgrims were his 
warm friends, and with some- 
thing of John Smith's love of 
adventure he joined the little 
company bound for America. 
Sailing from Holland, the Pil- 
grims touched on the English 
coast, where a larger and 
stronger vessel, the Mayflotvcr, was obtained, and the 
first ship was left behind. After a stormy voyage of 
several months they came in sight of the shores of Cape 
Cod. 

Captain Standish is Warmly Received by the Indians. — 
Captain Standish with a small party of men landed and 
began looking for a place to settle. They found paths in 
the forest, evidently made by the Indians, some baskets of 
corn buried in the ground, and a number of deserted huts, 
or wigwams. One day while Captain Standish' s explor- 
ing party were preparing breakfast around their camp 
fire they were startled by a wild yell different from any 




yo 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



sound they had ever heard before, and at the same time a 
shower of arrows flew past them. The noise was the 
"war whoop" of a band of Indians, who with their bows 
and arrows were advancing from the woods to attack 
the Enghshmen. Captain Standish and his men rushed to 
their boats, and seizing their guns, hastily fired. When 
the bullets from the white men's guns went whistling past 
their ears the Indians took to their heels. 



Tell about Captain John Smith's exploration of New England. What part of the New 
England coast was seen by the first home seekers from Europe ? Compare their landing to 
the landing of the first Jamestown colonists, noting the different season of the year, the dif- 
ferent appearance of the country, and the difference in the colonists themselves. What de- 
cided them in selecting a place for landing ? Who were the Pilgrims ? Why did they go 
to Holland ? Why were they dissatisfied with their Holland homes ? What did they de- 
termine to do ? How did they carry out their plan? Wtiowas Myles Standish? Tell of 
the voyage of the Pilgrims from Holland to America ; of Captain Standish's first encoun- 
ter with the Indians. 



FOUNDING OF THE PILGRIM-PURITAN COLONIES. 

The First Homes Built — After a month spent in explor- 
ing the coast the Pilgrims selected for their home a spot 
which Captain John Smith had called Plymouth, on the 
map which he had made of this region. liere were de- 
serted grainfields, which saved them the trouble of clear- 
ing land for their crops. Here, too, was a stream of pure 
water and a harbor for ships. So they landed and began 
building their log cabins. Everybody worked. The boys 
helped by shoveling away the snow, and carrying the 
lighter timbers as their fathers cut them in the woods; 
while the girls helped their mothers cook and wash and 
mend the clothes. They had no glass to put in their win- 
dows, so they pasted oiled paper upon the window sashes. 
Although they could not see through these queer window 



MASSACHUSETTS AND HER NEIGHBORS. 7I 

panes, yet the oiled paper let in some light and kept out 
the bitter cold air. 

The First Winter — You remember that in the James- 
town colony the hot summer brought fevers and deaths. 
To the people of the more northern colony of Plymouth 
the bitter cold of winter caused much suffering. The 
long voyage across the ocean in a crowded ship had weak- 
ened their health, to begin with. And their poor food and 
exposure to the cold brought on a kind of quick con- 
sumption, that caused the death of nearly half the settlers 
before the winter was over. Among the first to die was 
Rose Standish, wife of the brave captain. On a hill over- 
looking the sea Captain Standish and his friends buried 
their dead. Then the graves were leveled and the hill 
sown with wheat. This was done that the Indians might 
not know how many had died, and how few were left 
to guard the settlement. But in spite of their trials the 
iDrave Pilgrims did not give up. When the Mayflozver 
sailed for England in the spring no one asked to be taken 
back. 

Why there Was No Trouble with the Indians at First. — 
While Captain Standish and his men found many traces 
of the Indians in old paths, deserted wigwams, and fields, 
yet they were surprised to find that the Indians themselves 
had removed their homes from this region. A deadly 
plague, or disease, had broken out among them some years 
before, and had killed so many that the survivors fled in 
terror from the scene of so great sufferings. This was a 
fortunate thing for the settlers, as they were thus saved 
from conflicts with the Indians during the early years of 
their colony. 



72 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Some Friendly Indians — Samoset and Squanto. — One day 
an Indian appeared at Plymouth, and walking down the 
streets, called out, "Welcome, Englishmen!" None of 
the Pilgrims had ever heard an Indian talk before, and 
they were astonished to hear this man speak in the Eng- 
lish language. They found that his name was Samoset, 
and that he had learned a few words from a party of Eng- 
lishmen who had spent a short time fishing on the coast 
near by. Samoset took dinner with the settlers, and 
told them about the terrible sickness that had driven the 
Indians away from the Plymouth region.' Other Indians 
then visited Plymouth, among them one named Squanto, 
who had once been taken a captive to Europe, and there 
had learned to speak English readily. Squanto taught 
the settlers many useful things. As they had never seen 
corn before, he showed them how to plant it in hills, plac- 
ing a fish in each hill to enrich the soil, which was sandy 
and poor. He also taught them a way to catch fish and 
eels without hook or net. 

Chief Massasoit — The chief of the Indians of eastern 
Massachusetts was Massasoit. At the suggestion of Sam- 
oset the governor of the colony sent an invitation to this 
chief to visit the settlers. He came accompanied by his 
principal braves, and was met by Governor Bradford and 
Myles Standish with two soldiers playing upon the drum 
and fife. They all marched to the council chamber at 
Plymouth, where a great feast had been prepared for the 
Indians. A treaty was made in which the Indians agreed 
not to disturb the Plymouth people in the possession of 
the lands they occupied. As long as Massasoit lived this 
treaty was kept. Like Powhatan in Virginia, he was the 



MASSACHUSETTS AND HER NEIGHBORS. 73 

friend of the whites. When news came to Plymouth that 
Massasoit was ill Edward Winslow set out through the 
woods to visit and nurse him. The weather was hot, but 
he found the sick chief tossine on a dirty pallet in a close 
cabin crowded with Indians who had come to help their 
''medicine men'' conjure away the evil spirits that had 
caused the sickness. Winslow put the crowd out of the 
room and opened the doors to let in fresh air. Then he 
gave the sick man a much-needed bath, and administered 
some simple medicines. For three days he nursed his 
patient, and at the end of that time the sick man was 
able to walk about. Massasoit and his whole tribe were 
grateful for this act of kindness, and in many ways 
showed their friendship for the Plymouth colonists. 

Thanksgiving Day. — In the autumn, when the crops 
were gathered, the Pilgrims determined to show their 
thankfulness to God for his goodness to them by having a 
time of special thanksgiving. Some young men who had 
been sent hunting by Governor Bradford brought in a 
large number of wild turkeys, and their Indian friend.s 
furnished an abundance of venison. Other good things 
to eat were supplied by the wives and maidens of the col- 
ony. For several days services of praise at the meeting- 
house, or church, were followed by feasting and by trials 
of skill in shooting at a mark, in which both Indians and 
whites joined. This was the beginning of our custom of 
a yearly Thanksgiving Day. 

Captain Standish Sends a Message and Gets Angry with 
His Friend. — Among those who came to Plymouth in the 
good ship Mayfloivcr was a yoiuig woman named Pris- 
cilla Mull ins. During the first dreadful winter nobody 



74 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

worked harder nursing the sick and comforting the sor- 
rowing than did this sweet Pilgrim maiden. SkiUful 
with spinning wheel, needle, and thread, she was always 
busy trying to make others happy. To Captain Standi sh 
in his sadness and loneliness Priscilla seemed the loyeli- 
est maiden in Plymouth. He decided she was the one 
woman in the world who could take Rose Standish's 
place in his heart. But with all his brayery in war the 
captain was a coward when it came to facing the ladies. 
He was not afraid of a rille ball, but he was afraid of a 
woman's laugh. So instead of proposing to Miss Pris- 
cilla himself he asked his young friend John Alden to go 
to the young lady and tell her that Captain Standish 
wished her to become his wife. Now, John Alden himself 
was in loye with Priscilla. Yet he felt that he must be 
true to his friend. So he sorrowfully obeyed the captain's 
request. In the midst of his praises of the captain, how- 
eyer, the- laughing Priscilla stopped her loyer with the 
question, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" 
When the fiery captain learned how his messenger had 
failed he blazed up with anger. But afterward he found 
a wife to comfort his heart, and when John Alden and 
Priscilla were married he freely forgaye them both. 

Coming* of the Puritans. — Not long after the Pilgrims 
had founded Plymouth another settlement was made on 
the coast a few miles farther north. The new settlement 
was formed by some Englishmen who came to America 
for the same reason that brought the Pilgrims — they 
wanted to worship God in their own way, undisturbed. 
In their religion they were much like the Pilgrims, except 
that they did not at first try to form a separate Church 



MASSACHUSETTS AND HER NEIGHBORS. 75 

from the Church of England, as the Pilgrims did. They 
wished to remain members of the Church of England, 
but they wanted some of its beliefs and practices changed 
— "purihed," as they said. Hence the name ''Puritans" 
was given them. When they found they could not get the 
changes they wished in the Church they began to think of 
coming to America, as the Pilgrims had done. 

The Puritan Settlements. — The tirst settlement made by 
the Puritans was called Salem (a Bible word, meaning 
Peace). Soon afterward about a thousand Puritans, 
most of them from the town of Boston, England, came 
over under Governor Winthrop, and established another 
settlement, which they named Boston, after their old 
home. Boston grew rapidly, and soon became the capital 
of the Puritan colony. The colony itself was known as 
the "Massachusetts Bay Colony," the word "Massachu- 
setts" being the Indian name for the ''Blue Hills," near 
Boston. The Plymouth colony and the Massachusetts 
Bay colony were afterward joined in one, and called the 
colony of Massachusetts. 

Where did the Pilgrims make their settlement ? How did the boys and girls help? 
What kind of windows did their houses have? Tell of the sufferings of the settlers the 
first winter. What sorrow came to Captain Standish ? How did the colonists conceal 
from the Indians the number of deaths ? Why were there so few Indians in this region? 
Tell about Samoset ; about Squanto ; about the treaty with Massasoit ; about Massasoit's 
sickness and cure. Tell about the first Thanksgiving Day. Who was Priscilla Mullins ? 
Tell about Captain Standish's message to Priscilla. Who made a settlement near Plym- 
outh ? What was the difference between the Puritans and the Pilgrims? What settle- 
ments were made by the Puritans ? Tell about the growth of Boston ; about the union of 
the Pilgrim-Puritan colonies. 

The Little Neighbor of Massachusetts — 
RpiODE Island. 

Strictness of the Puritans. Roger Williams — The Pu- 
ritans were so determined that their religion should not 



76 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



be interfered with in their new home that they made the 
mistake of trying to make everybody who came to their 

colony think exactly 
W "-] as they did in reli- 
gious matters. No 
churches except Pur- 
itan churches, 
or "meetinghouses/' 
were permitted. Peo- 
ple who stayed from 
public worship were 
fined, or sometimes 
put in a wooden 
cage. When Roger 
Williams, a Separa- 
tist minister, came to 
the colony, and be- 
gan to preach that 
the rulers should not 
he was arrested and 




ROGER WILLIAMS S CHURCH. 



interfere with any man's religion, 
ordered to go back to England. 

Roger Williams Establishes a New Colony Instead of 

getting on board the ship that was to take him back to 
England, Roger Williams ran off into the woods, and 
lived a while with some friendly Indians. Then he started 
a settlement, which he called ''Providence," because of 
God's merciful providence toward him. He invited all 
people who thought themselves badly treated on account 
of their religion to come to his settlement, promising to 
let them believe whatever they preferred, and belong to 
any Church they wished, or not to join any Church if 



MASSACHUSETTS AND HER NEIGHBORS. jy 

they thought best. Many settlers from Massachusetts ac- 
cepted his invitation, and came through the woods to join 
him. Roger Wilhams's colony was afterward known as 
Rhode Island, from the Dutch words for Red Island, an 
island with red soil not far from Providence. 

Two Other Neighbors of Massachusetts — Con- 
necticut AND New Hampshire. 

Other New England Colonies — The Massachusetts col- 
ony and the Rhode Island colony were next-door neigh- 
bors, with a strip of woods separating them. Adjoining 
them two other colonies were formed, known as Con- 
necticut and New Hampshire. This group of four 
colonies occupied the region named "New England" on 
Captain John Smith's map. The four colonies were 
known as the New England colonies. 

King Philip's War. 

Massasoit's Sons. Alexander's Death The Indian chief 

Massasoit, the friend of the whites, had two sons, to 
whom the settlers had given the English names Alexander 
and Philip. Alexander was the elder, and he became 
chief on the death of his father. The young chief was 
not as good a friend of the settlers as his old father had 
been. The governor of Plymouth colony, hearing that he 
was stirring up the Indians to make war upon the whites, 
had him arrested and brought to Plymouth. He was 
taken sick during his stay at Plymouth, and died soon 
after he reached home. His wife declared he had been 
poisoned by the whites. Many Indians believed the story, 
and it increased their dislike for the English. 



78 



THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Philip Becomes Chief — On the death of his older 
brother, Alexander, Philip became chief. Philip was a 
shrewd and also a very proud man. He called himself 
King Philip, and often wore a bright red blanket over 
his shoulders and a sort of crown of wampum on his 
head. He hated the whites because he believed they had 
killed his brother, and because he saw that they were 
taking all the lands which had once belonged to his peo- 




INDIAN ATTACK. 



pie. He decided that if all the English could be killed 
or driven away it would be better for the Indians. He 
began to lay his plans to do this. Messengers were sent 
to all the Indian tribes of New England begging them 
to join in driving the whites away. Nearly all the chiefs 
agreed to join him, and soon a terrible war began. 

A Bloody War — The Indians did not fight openly in the 
fields, but stealthily and under cover of the trees. They 



MASSACHUSETTS AND HER NEIGHBORS. 79 

surrounded villages at night while the whites were asleep, 
and often killed men, women, and children. One Sun- 
day while the people of Hadley, Massachusetts, were 
in church the words of the preacher were suddenly 
drowned by wild yells of savages on the outside. Seizing 
their guns, which were stacked near the door, the men of 
the congregation rushed out to meet the foe. Such a 
large number of Indians were swarming on every side, 
however, that the whites were about to be beaten. Sud- 
denly an old man of tall form and with long gray beard 
appeared among them, and in a loud ringing voice or- 
dered them to hold their ground and then to charge upon 
the redskins. Taking fresh courage, they obeyed the 
stranger's command, and soon put the Indians to flight, 
chasing them far into the woods. After the pursuit 
was over the gray-haired leader was nowhere to be found. 
Some declared he was an angel sent to save the people. 
But in truth it was Colonel Goffe, one of the judges who 
had sentenced King Charles I of England to death, and 
who was hiding in America, fearing to show himself 
even to his townspeople, lest some one should report his 
whereabouts to the English officers. 

The War Ended. — Other towns were not so fortunate 
as Hadley. In many places the Indians overpowered the 
settlers, burned all the houses, and killed or made pris- 
oners the men, women, and children. There was hardly 
a white family in all New England that did not lose some 
member. But the Indians suffered most. All the New 
England colonies joined in sending soldiers to fight the 
cruel savages. King Philip's warriors were beaten; 
nearly all the fighting men were killed, and he himself 



, 80 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

was chased from one hiding place to another Hke a wild 
beast. His wife and little son were taken captive. Still 
he would not give up. One of his followers advised him 
to surrender. The suggestion so angered Philip that he 
killed the man with one blow of his tomahawk. A brother 
of the slain Indian, in revenge, led the whites to Philip's 
hiding place. When his enemies burst in upon him Philip, 
seeing there were too many for him to hght, started to 
flee. A bullet pierced his heart. His death ended the 
war. His wife and little boy were sold as slaves and sent 
to work in the far-away Bermuda Islands. 

What mistake did the Puritan colonists make ? Who was Roger Williams ? Tell about 
his treatment by the rulers of the colony ; about the founding of the colony of Rhode 
Island. What two other colonies were founded in the region of New England? Name 
the New England colonies. What were the names of the sons of Massasoit ? What hap- 
pened to the eldest ? What charge was brought against the white settlers ? What kind of 
man was Philip ? How did he feel toward the settlers ? What plan did he form ? What 
was the Indian method of fighting? Tell about the fight at Hadley. What disasters hap- 
pened to many while settlements? Tell of the defeat and death of Philip. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 



8l 



CHAPTER V. 

Pennsylvania and Her Neighbors, 



William Penn— Pennsylvania. 
A College Student Joins the Quakers and Gets into 
Trouble. — Not long after Roger Williams founded the 
Rhode Island colony a boy was born in England who was 
destined, when he grew up, to be the founder of one of the 
largest and most important of the English colonies in 
America. The boy's mother was a 
Dutch lady, and his father was Admiral 
Penn, a noted sea-fighter. Young Wil- 
liam Penn was sent to the best schools 
of England. When a young man at 
college he and other students used to 
attend the preaching of a denomination 
of Christians known as ''Eriends," or 
"Quakers.*' The Quakers believed in 
following the exact words of Christ's 
teachings. They would not say 'T 
swear" even when the judge wished 
them to take an oath in court. They 
believed that a person should not strike 
back when struck, but should ''turn the other cheek," In 
talking they said ''thou" and "thee" instead of "you," 
and called everyone by his plain name, without Sir or 
Mr. or Mrs. They kept on their hats in church, and 




A QUAKER. 



82 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

would not take them off before anyone, even the king 
himself. Although Quakers were at that time often 
whipped and imprisoned, and some of them even put to 
death, Penn liked their teachings so well that he became 
a Quaker himself. Believing that the morning prayers 
at college were not conducted in the right way, he re- 
fused to attend them. He refused also to wear the gown 
in which students were required to dress, and with his 
friends he tore the gowns from some who wore them. Of 
course this was wrong, and he was expelled from school. 

William Penn's Conduct Angers His Father. — Old Ad- 
miral Penn was very angry because of his son's conduct. 
He sent young William to P'rance, hoping that travel 
would make him give up his newfangled notions. But 
the young man clung to his Quaker beliefs, and even wrote 
books to prove that the Quakers should not be disturbed 
because of their customs. He was thrown into prison; 
but he spent his time in jail writing more books in defense 
of the Quakers. Released from prison, he traveled in 
Holland, his mother's homeland, and in other countries 
of Europe, preaching Quaker doctrines. His father had 
become so angry with him because he would not promise 
to take off his hat to the king, the Duke of York, and him- 
self that he ordered him to leave home and never to come 
back. But his mother wrote to her son and kept him 
supplied with money. After a while the old admiral, 
overcome by his wife's pleadings, and seeing it was no 
use to oppose his son's beliefs, permitted him to return 
home. 

Penn's Woods. — On the death of Admiral Penn his son 
William inherited his fortune. King Charles U had bor- 



PENNSYLVANIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 83 

rowed a large sum of money from Admiral Penn, whicli 
he had never repaid. Finding it impossible to protect 
his Quaker friends from persecution in England, William 
Penn now asked the king for a grant of land in America, 
in payment of his father's claim. He thus hoped to estab- 
lish a home in the New World for the persecuted Quakers. 
The king agreed to pay the debt in this way, and a large 
tract of land west of the Delaware River was given to 
Penn (1681). On account of the great forests in this 
region Penn suggested the name Sylvania, the Latin for 
''woods;" but the king insisted on naming the grant 
Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods^ in honor of Admiral 
Penn. Pennsylvania lay about halfway between the 
Plymouth and the Jamestown settlements, and was larger 
than all of England. 

The City of Brotherly Love. — Penn determined to es- 
tablish what he called a ''godly commonwealth," where 
people should be as free in matters of religion as they 
were in Holland. Pie crossed the ocean himself with his 
colonists, and laid out a city on the west bank of the 
Delaware (1683). He named the place Philadelphia, 
which means brotherly love. He had drawn a map 
of his proposed city before leaving England. The streets 
were to run north and south, and east and west. Those 
running north and south were named First Street, Sec- 
ond Street, and so on, while those running east and west 
were called after trees and fruits, as Pine, Walnut, Mul- 
berry. The town grew very rapidly, and soon became 
the largest city in all the colonies. After the colonies 
became States Philadelphia was, for a time, the capital of 
the United States. 



84 THE beginner's history of our country. 

How Penn Obtained His Land. — We know chat the king 
of England claimed all the land from Newfoundland to 
Florida, because John Cabot had sailed in an English 
ship along this coast before any other white man had 
seen it. The king granted portions of his American 




PKNN S TREATY WIIH THE INDIAN^ 



land to trading companies, and some he gave to favor- 
ite friends, or, as in the case of William Penn, he used it 
to pay debts. The white settlers who came to America 
obtained their titles to the land on which they built their 
homes from the trading companies, or from the proprie- 
tors to whom the king had given it. In most of the col- 
onies the Indians were not supposed to have any rights to 
the land, although their fathers and grandfathers before 



PENNSYLVANIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 85 

them had hunted upon it and they had always looked 
upon it as their own. When the Indians objected to the 
seizure of their land the colonists often took up arms and 
drove them far away to the west. William Penn, how^- 
ever, believed that the Indians had a right to the land 
upon which they lived, even if they did not fence it in 
and cultivate it. Although he had obtained his land 
from the king, yet he would not occupy it or allow his 
colonists to do so until they had bought it again from the 
Indians. 

Penn's Treaty. — Soon after he reached his colony Penn 
sent word to the chiefs of all the neighboring Indian 
tribes to meet him. The meeting took place under a 
great elm tree near the banks of the Delaware River. 
Penn had no soldiers with him, and his few companions 
carried no guns or weapons of any kind. He told the 
red men he wanted to make a bargain with them for the 
purchase of their land, and to establish peace and friend- 
ship between his people and their people. "All between 
us," said Penn, ''shall be openness and love. The 
friendship between you and me I will not compare to a 
chain, for that the rain might rust or a falling tree might 
break. We are the same as if one man's body were di- 
vided into two parts; we are all one flesh and blood!" 
Then Penn gave the chiefs presents, and they presented 
him with a belt of "wampum," consisting of long strings 
of white shells w^ith three slanting bands of black, and 
with two figures worked in the center-^ — one a bare- 
headed Indian, the other a white man with a hat on, who 
are clasping hands in token of friendship. The Indians 
were so pleased with Penn's fairness and kindness that 



86 THE beginner's history of our country. 

they said, ''We will live in love with William Penn and 
his children as long as the sun and moon shall shine." 
As a sign of friendship they brought out the "pipe of 
peace," a tobacco pipe with a long stem, ornamented with 
feathers, and, lighting it, solemnly passed it around the 
circle, white man and red man each taking a few whiffs. 
The Indians kept their promise of peace, and it is said 
that no Quaker was ever killed by an Indian. The great 
elm under which the treaty was made stood for more than 
a hundred years, and was finally blown down. In one of 
the streets of the city of Philadelphia a monument now 
stands marking the spot where the old tree once stood. 

Growth of the Colony — W illiam I'enn was a wise ruler. 
He declared that every citizen should worship God as he 
thought right. His laws gave equal protection to In- 
dians and white men. He believed that even bad men 
should not be imprisoned in cold, dark, dirty jails, like 
most of the jails in England at that time. He estab- 
lished in Pennsylvania workhouses where criminals were 
put to w^ork, because he believed idleness made bad men 
worse. His kind and just government attracted many 
people to his colony. Besides English Quakers, large 
numbers of immigrants came from Germany, Holland, 
Sweden, and Switzerland. Germantown, near Philadel- 
phia, was settled by Germans, as the name shows. In 
later years many came from Scotland and Ireland. No 
other colony w^as settled by people from so many differ- 
ent nations, but in no colony were the citizens more 
peaceable, contented, and prosperous. 

Last Days of Penn — After remaining two years in his 
colony Penn returned to England. James II, who be- 



PENNSYLVANIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 87 

came king about this time, was a warm friend of Penn, 
and this friendship enabled Penn to secure protection for 
the suffering Quakers in England. But most of the 
English people did not like King James, and they drove 
him from the throne. Afterward Penn was several times 
arrested on the charge of trying to bring back the ban- 
ished king. Nothing could be proved against him, how- 
ever, and he was released. With his wife and daugh- 
ters he again visited his American colony, but hastened 
back to England when he heard the government was 
planning to take away his rights as proprietor of Penn- 
sylvania. In the last years of his life he was stricken 
with paralysis, and was scarcely able to move. After his 
death his children became proprietors of his colony. On 
the tower of the great city hall of Philadelphia to-day 
is an immense statue of William Penn, reminding all who 
see it of one of the noblest men in the early history of 
our country. 

When and where was William Penn born ? Who were his parents ? Who were the 
Quakers? Tell about William Penn's life at school. For what was he expelled ? Howdid 
his father try to cure him of his Quaker beliefs? What was done to Penn by the king's 
oflRcers? What effect did this have upon him? What promise did young Penn refuse to 
make? Tell about his father's anger ; about his mother's course toward him. For what 
purpose did he wish to obtain a grant of land in America ? How did he obtain this grant ? 
Where was his land situated? What can you say of the size of his grant ? of the name 
given it? What sort of government did Penn wish to establish ? Tell about the city that 
Penn founded. From whom did the white settlers generally get their land ? What about 
the Indians' rights to the land ? How did Penn act in the matter of getting land for his 
colonists? Tell about Penn's treaty with the Indians. What can you say about Penn's 
rule of his colony ? of the growth of Pennsylvania? Tell about the friendship of King 
James for Penn ; about Penn's last days ; about the monument to his memory. What 
can you admire about Penn? 

Pennsylvania's Little Neighbor — DELAw^\RE. 

Delaware. — When Penn first came to America he found 
a settlement of Swedes on the Delaware River at what is 



88 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



now Wilmington, in the State of Delaware. These set- 
tlers readily agreed to become a part of his colony, Penn 
having obtained a grant to this region in addition to the 
land the king had iirst given him. For about twenty 
years this part of Pennsylvania was called the ''Three 
Lower Counties on the Delaware." When Delaware 
became an independent State she adopted a blue flag 
with white stars. Some one said that this flag looked 
like "a. speckled blue hen." To-day the people of Del- 
aware are sometimes called the "Blue Hen's Chickens." 
Delaware and Rhode Island were the smallest colonies, 
and they are to-day our smallest States. 

Pennsylvania's Twin Neighbors — The Jerseys. 
East of the Delaware The 

same King Charles who granted 
the land west of the Delaware 
River to William Penn had some 
years before given the region east 
of the Delaware to his own broth- 
er, the Duke of York. The duke 
gave it to two of his friends, one 
of whom was governor of an is- 
land in tlie English Channel called 
Jersey Island, the home of Jersey 
cows. In compliment to his gov- 
ernor friend the duke named the 
territory New Jersey. The two 
proprietors divided their colony into two parts, one called 
East Jersey, and one West Jersey. Among the settlers 
were many Swedes and Dutchmen, besides many Eng- 




COLONIES ON THE 
DELAWARE RIVER. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 89 

lish Quakers. William Penn and some wealthy friends 
bought West Jersey, and afterward East Jersey, from 
the proprietors. But the governor of the adjoining col- 
ony of New York claimed the Jerseys as part of his col- 
ony, and there was so much controversy that finally Penn 
and his friends gave up their Jersey colonies to the king. 
The twin Jerseys w^re then united into one colony, called 
New Jersey. 

Pennsylvania^'s Dutch Neighbor — New York. 

Some Things We Owe to the Dutch. — We should not for- 
get how much the people of the little country of Holland 
did for our forefathers. The first settlers of New Eng- 
land found a refuge in Holland when driven from their 
own land, and from Holland they sailed to America. The 
mother of the owner of Pennsylvania was a Dutch 
lady, whose careful training of her son strengthened 
those noble traits that made him the successful founder 
of a great colony. In. the wars which the Dutch- fought 
to save their land from foreign oppressors many soldiers 
from England helped them. Among these English sol- 
diers were Walter Raleigh, John Smith, Myles Standish, 
and others who in Holland learned much that was useful 
to them in establishing American colonies. In Pennsyl- 
vania and the two adjoining colonies of Delaware and 
New Jersey many of the first settlers were Dutch. There 
was one colony, however, which was truly a Dutch col- 
ony, for it was discovered, settled, and for many years 
ruled by the Dutch. This was Pennsylvania's northern 
neighbor, now known as the State of New York. 

The First Dutch Ship Visits America — Henry Hudson 

7 



90 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

was an English captain, and a friend of John Sniitli. In 
the same year that John Smith sailed to \'irginia. Cap- 
tain Hndson was sent by an English trading- company in 
a small ship to find a way to India by sailing northeast — 
that is, north of Europe and Asia. He was stc^pped by 
the ice and had to return. The ''East India Company" 




THE HALF-MOON ON THE HUDSON RIVER. 

of Holland was also anxious to find a short water route 
to India, and they employed Captain Hudson to sail for 
them in the same direction as he had sailed before. Again 
he was stopped by the ice. Now, Captain John Smith 
had written from V^irginia to his friend Hudson that he 
had heard of a strait somewhere north of Virginia by 
which a ship might sail through to India. Remembering 
this letter. Captain Hudson turned his ship westward and 
sailed for America. In the month of September, two 
years after Jamestown had been founded, Hudson's 
Dutch ship, the Half-Moon, entered what is now New 
York Bay. Sailing onward, the captain came to what 
seemed a great arm of the sea stretching up into the land. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND IIER NEIGHBORS. 



91 



He now hoped be had at last discovered 
the way to Incha. But, continuing his 
course, he found that the supposed 
"strait" was a great river, which be- 
came narrower and shallower until his 
ship could go no farther. Seeing no 
prosj^ect of reaching India, he turned 
back toward Holland. The majestic 
river he had discovered was called the 
Hudson River in his honor. 

The Dutch Colony Founded. — The 
Dutch at once claimed the country on 
both banks of the Hudson River, and 
sent out men to establish trading posts. 
These trading posts were combinations 
of forts for holding the country and 
stores at which hatchets, blankets, 
beads, and trinkets were sold to the In- 
dians in trade for skins of animals. 
Later, settlements were made, the most 
important of which was on an island 
at the mouth of the Hudson, where the 
city of New York now stands. This 
settlement was called New Amsterdam, 
after one of the chief cities of Holland. 
One name for Holland is ''the Nether- 
lands" (which means "low lands"). So 
the Dutch named their American col- 
ony New Netherlands, in memory of 
their old home. Like the Quakers of 
Pennsylvania, they bought their lands 



92 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

from the Indians and lived peaceably with them. The 
entire island of Manhattan, on which New York now 
stands, was purchased for trinkets worth about twenty- 
four dollars, or at the rate of about a thousand acres for 
a dollar. Now it would take many thousand dollars to 
buy one acre of this same land. 




NEW YORK IN 165O. 

New Netherlands Becomes New York. — The English 
claimed New Netherlands because of Cabot's discovery. 
At first they paid no attention to the Dutch settlements, 
but fifty years after New Amsterdam was founded an 
English fleet appeared in the harbor and sent a message 
to Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor, demanding the 
surrender of the city and colony. The governor became 
very angry. He stamped around on his wooden leg and 
swore he would never surrender. But his Dutch sub- 
jects were not very fond of his rule. They thought they 
would like a change to the .English', so they made the old 
governor surrender. The English changed both names, 
New Netherlands and New Amsterdam, to New York, in 
honor of the king's brother, the Duke of York, to whom 
the king had given all the Dutch possessions in America. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND HER NEIGHBORS. 



93 



Growth of the Colony. — For a long time the growth of 
the colony was slow. It was after the colonies had become 
States before the city of Xew York had as many people 




SCENE IN NEW YORK IN igOO, 



as Philadelphia, or the State of Xew York had as many 
people as \^irginia. Xow Xew York State is ahead of all 
the other States in population, and X^ew York city is the 
largest city in our country. 



Whom did Penn find already settled on part of his land when he first came to America ? 
Where? What was this part of Pennsylvania called ? Tell about the '" Blue Hen's Chick- 
ens." To whom was the land east of the Delaware granted? Explain the name "New 
Jersey." Why were there two Jerseys ? By whom were the Jerseys bought ? To whom 
were they finally given ? What change was then made ? Tell some things we owe to the 
people of Holland. What colony was founded by the Dutch ? Tell about the voyages 
Captain Henry Hudson made toward the northeast; about Hudson's discovery of a 
great river. What did the Dutch claim ? 'I'ell about the Dutch trading posts. Where 
was the most important Dutch settlement ? What name was given it ? Explain the name 
the Dutch gave their colony. Tell about their purchase of Manhattan Island. What 
nation disputed the claim of the Dutch to New Netherlands ? What was the basis of the 
English claim? Tell about the conquest of the Dutch colony by Englishmen; of the 
change in names ; of the growth of New York. 



94 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Rise of New France. 



Cartier^ the Explorer. 

French Explorers in the North and West. — While Eng- 
lishmen were busy clearing the forests and building 
homes along the Atlantic coast of North America bold 
pioneers of Erance were following the waterways and 
exploring the wilderness north and west of the English 
colonies. The Frenchmen established trading posts and 
formed settlements in the region they explored, named 
it New Erance, and claimed it for their king. The three 
men foremost in acquiring this great domain for Erance 
were Jacques Cartier, Samuel Champlain, and Robert 
Cavalier de la Salle. 

Cartier Discovers the St. Lawrence River Nearly fifty 

years after Columbus's discovery, and fifty years be- 
fore Raleigh sent his first ship to America, Jacques 
Cartier, sailing from Erance, reached the coast of New- 
foundland. Passing through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
he ascended the St. Lawrence River a short distance. To 
his disappointment he found no green fields and fertile 
valleys, but only a rocky, dismal land. Nevertheless, his 
men disembarked from their ship, made a huge cross of 
cedar, and left it standing in the ground as a sign that 
they claimed the whole region for Erance. 



THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE. 



95 



Cartier Carries off Two Indian Boys Indians gathered 

around the white-skinned strangers, eagerly watching 
every movement, and Hstening intently to their queer- 
sounding speech. Cartier gave them presents of strings 
of glass beads and strips of bright calico. Two Indian 




EXPLORATIONS OF LA SALLE AND MARQUETTE. 



boys were induced to visit the ships, and when they were 
safe on board the cruel Frenchmen sailed away, taking the 
lads with them to France. The young Indians had never 
before seen a larger vessel than their bark canoes, and 
probably had never before sailed out of sight of land. 
Now as the land faded from sight behind them, and as 
day after day nothin 



g could be seen but the boundless 



96 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ocean, ^ve may be sure they became iiomesick for the 
woods and rocky streams of their ^vild western home. 
They were treated with aU kindness, however, by their 
captors. On reaching France they were taken to the city 
of Paris and were presented to the king. The splendid 
palaces and churches of the city, the silk and velvet robes 
of the kino- and his attendants, tlie miles of ^Tain tields 
and vineyards, all filled the boys with wonder. 

Cartier's Second Visit to America. — As soon as winter 
was o\-er Cartier started on a second voyage to explore 
the waters of the St. Lawrence and to establish a settle- 
ment. The two Indian boys — the happiest people on his 
shi}^) — accompanied him, eager to see their friends again 
and to tell of the wonderful thino-s thev had seen. A^ain 
ascending the river, Cartier reached the towering cliffs 
where now stands the city of Quebec. Here he found a 
cluster of wigwams, the capital city of the Indian chief 
Donnacona. The chief received the Frenchmen kindly, 
thankino- them for their kindness to his voune countrv- 
men. After a short stay with Chief Donnacona, Cartier 
and his men pushed up the river to visit the Indian vil- 
lage of Ilochelaga. of which thev had heard. 

Visit to the Village of Hochelaga As Cartier's ships 

approached the village of Hochelaga troops of Indians 
thronged the river's bank, dancing and singing with de- 
light, and throwing gifts of hsh and grain into the white 
men's boats. The Frenchmen landed, and were con- 
ducted to the village. Here they received a formal wel- 
come, after which they presented gifts of hatchets and 
knives to the men and beads to the women. To the Indian 
children they threw handfuls of pewter rings and images. 



THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE. 97 

causing a wild scramble and shouts of laughter. Cartier 
named the mountain overlooking the village Alount 
Royal, or Montreal. To-day the great cities of jMontreal 
and Quebec stand where once stood the two Indian vil- 
lages visited by Cartier. 

Cartier's Settlements Failures. — Cartier's party spent the 
winter near the present site of Quebec. But what with 
cold weather and disease they were glad enough to set 
sail for France as soon as spring released their ships from 
the ice. Cartier, undaunted, made a third voyage to 
America. His attempted settlement again proved a fail- 
ure, and he bade farewell to New France forever. \\^ars 
broke out in France between the Protestants and the 
Roman Catholics, and it was more than tiftv vears before 
another attempt was made by Cartier's countrymen to 
occupy New France. 

What were French pioneers doing while Englishmen were making settlements along the 
Atlantic coast ? Name the leading French pioneers. When did Cartier sail to America* 
Tell abont liis explorations ; abont his landing. Tell about Cartier's first meeting with 
the Indians ; about the visit of the Indian boys to France ; about Cartier's second voyage. 
Where did he disembark? Tell about his visit to Hochelaga. What cities have since 
been built at places visited by Cartier ? How long did Cartier's settlers remain in Amer- 
ica? \\'hat caused the failure of his settlement ? What delayed further attempts at set- 
tlement by the French ? 

ChAAIPLAIN, THE F AT HER OF NeW FrAXCE. 

Slow Progress of Sixty Years. — Sixty years have passed 
since Jacques Cartier, sailing homeward, looked for the 
last time at the rocky shores of Newfoundland, ^lean- 
time Sir Walter Raleigh has been spending a fortune in 
vain efforts to establish his English colony of \'irginia. 
yet, however, neither Englishmen nor Frenchmen have 
succeeded in making a lasting- settlement. From the Gulf 



98 



THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



of iNIexico to the Arctic Ocean the only white men are a 
little group of Spaniards who had made a settlement at St. 
Augustine, Florida. 

The French Make Another Effort to Form a Settlement. — 
One spring day in the year i()04 two French ships ap- 
proached the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. The leader of 

the expedition was Sieur de 
jNlonts, a French nohleman; 
closely associated with him 
was Samuel Champlain, a 
bold explorer, who had vis- 
ited America several times 
before, and who during* the 
rest oi his life was to be the 
foremost man in the histcny 
of New France. The pur- 
pose of the expedition was 
to establish a settlement 
somewhere in the region Cartier had claimed for France. 

Champlain's Previous Voyages. — As Champlain knew the 
country better than his companions he was a very im- 
portant member of the company. During his first voyage 
to America, while in the service of Spain, he had visited 
the West India Islands, Mexico, and the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama. On this voyage the idea of a ship canal across the 
isthmus suggested itself to his mind, as a means "by 
wdiich the voyage to the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) would 
be shortened more than fifteen hundred leagues." (Three 
hundred years later, in our own day, Champlain's idea is 
about to be carried out by the United States govern- 
ment.) In a second voyage to America, Champlain as- 




CHAMPLAIN. 



THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE. 99 

cended the St. Lawrence River beyond the highest point 
readied by Cartier, turning back when the rapids stopped 
the progress of his boat. De Monts's proposed expedi- 
tion to found a colony attracted the adventurous Cham- 
plain to a third voyage to the Western world. 

The Settlement in Nova Scotia. — After sailing around the 
southern extremity of Nova Scotia and along the coast 
of Maine in search of a good place for a settlement, the 
Frenchmen finally chose a beautiful harbor on the penin- 
sula of Nova Scotia. Here they landed and made a set- 
tlement, which they named Port Royal. This was the 
first permanent French settlement in America, and was 
made in 1605 — just two years before the first English 
settlement at Jamestown. 

Quebec Founded. — Champlain went back to France, 
then returned to America. He hoped to establish a set- 
tlement on the St. Lawrence River, and to explore the 
o-reat river to its source, believino- that he would in this 
way find a western route to China. At the foot of a 
towering cliff where Jacques Cartier seventy years before 
had found a flourishing Indian village Champlain landed 
and built a fort — the beginning of the city of Quebec 
(t6o8), a city which for more than a hundred years was 
to be the capital of New France. 

Champlain Joins an Indian "War Party While at his 

fort on the St. Lawrence, Champlain was begged by some 
of the Indian tribes of Canada to join them in an expe- 
dition against the Iroquois, who lived in what is now 
known as New York State. Desiring to explore the coun- 
try of the Iroquois, Champlain joined the war party, and 
all embarked in their canoes on the River Sorel, and began 

L.cfC. 



100 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

their journey southward. At last they reached the beau- 
tiful lake now known as Lake Chamj^lain, named from 
its discoverer. The dreaded Iroquois were encountered 
on the shores of the lake. A fight took place in which 
Champlain's gun so frightened the enemy that they ran 
at his second fire. The victorious Indians returned to 
their northern homes in triumph, and on parting with 
Champlain invited him to visit their towns, and aid them 
again in their wars. 

Other Explorations of Champlain. — Several times after- 
ward Champlain joined expeditions of his Indian friends 
against the hated Iroquois. On one of these expeditions 
he discovered Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. Aeain 
visiting France, he brought back to Quebec his beautiful 
young wife. Madame Champlain remained four years in 
Canada, spending most of her time in trying to Chris- 
tianize the Indian women, and in teaching the catechism 
of the Church to the Indian children. At last, after 
thirty years spent in the toilsome and dangerous work 
of exploring the forests and waters of New France, 
Champlain, now an old man of sixty-eight, lay on his 
deathbed in the fort at Quebec. On Christmas Day, 
1635, the father of New France breathed his last. But 
as long as the mountains look down upon the beautiful 
lake that he discovered the name of Samuel Champlain 
will be remembered. 

What was done toward founding settlements in America in the sixty 5'ears that followed 
Cartier's last voyage? Who were the leaders of the next attempt to form a French settle- 
ment ? Tell about Champlain's previous voyages. When and where did De Monts and 
Champlain make their settlement? Why is the Port Royal settlement important to re- 
member? Tell about the founding of Quebec ; the discovery of Lake Champlain. What 
other lakes did Champlain discover? Tell about the visit of Champlain's wife to Amer- 
ica; about the death of Champlain. 



THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE. 



lOI 



La Salle, the Founder of Louisiana. 

Youngs La Salle Arrives in Canada. — Thirty years after 
the body of Champlain was buried in the frozen soil at 
Quebec, Robert Cavalier de la Salle, a young Frenchman 
twenty-three years old, 
came to Canada and estab- 
Ushed a trading post a 
few miles above Montreal. 
Several years later he 
moved to the northern 
shore of Lake Ontario, 
where he built a fort 
called Fort Frontenac, 
from the French governor 
of Canada. As com- 
mander of Fort Fronte- 
nac, La Salle ruled with 
iron firmness his little 
empire, including soldiers, 

traders, missionaries, adventurers, and Lidians. Al- 
though fast growing rich from the profits of his fur trade, 
he was not contented. He longed to explore the western 
watercourses, to find a passage to Lidia, and to plant 
the banner of France still further out in the unknown 
wilderness. 

La Salle Hears of Father Marquette's Discoveries. — \\ hile 
La Salle was still at Fort Frontenac news of the discov- 
eries of Father Marquette came to his ears. Father Mar- 
quette was a French missionary, who with a few compan- 
ions pushed his way along the Great Lakes in search of a 




LA SALLE. 



lOJ Till". r.IX^.lNNI'.R S lIlSrORV OF OUR COUNTRY. 

great river of which the liuhans had tokl him. From 
Green l>ay, in the western i)art of Lake ]\lichi<;an. Father 
Ahir(|nclle's part}- asccmlcil ihc h\)x Ui\cr lo its source. 
Then, followini;- an liuhan i;ni(le and carrying their 
canoes, ihcy Iraxek'd through the woods to tlie Wisconsin 
Kixer. P'loating ck)\\n the W isconsin, to their joy they 
at last came to the great ri\ er the\- so much wislied in see. 
They traveled hundreds of miles down the broad Missis- 
sippi, passing the nuniths of the Alissoma and the Ohio. 
.When they had gone as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, 
fearing hostile Indians, they turned hack, and reached 
Fake Michigan by the way (^i the Illinois River. Worn 
out by the hardships of his long journey. Father Mar- 
(piette died on the shores of Lake Michigan, where the 
town of Marcfuette now stands. (See map, page 95.) 

La Salle Sails Down the Mississippi to Its Mouth. — La 
Salle now resoi\ed to com[)lete the work of Father ]\Lar- 
(juette, and tc^ follow t-lie miknown Mississippi to its 
mouth. \\'ith a i)arty of Frenchmen and Indians he sailed 
through Lakes Ontario and Huron, and arrived at the 
southern shore of Lake Michigan. Tn his efforts to pass 
from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi he met with dis- 
asters that would ha\e concfuered a less heroic spirit. His 
ship of supplies from Canada failed to arrive, and he 
traveled back on foot a tlnnisand miles through the icy 
woods to learn the cause of the delay. I le returned to his 
task of finding a way to the Mississi.ppi. At one time his 
little com])any was alnu^st starved when thev came upon 
a buffalo stuck fast in the mud. They killed him and 
soon had plenty of 1)ufralo meat to eat. At last La Salle 
ascended the Chicago River, and traversed the few miles 



THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE. 



103 




LA SALI.i; CLAIMINC; LOUISIANA FOR FKANCi:. 



nil' Kisi' oi' isii'W i>K,\Nri>:. 



'<\S 



ol wiMnnrs". luMwmi lli.il '.lir.mi .iiul llu" IllmiM.. I lu'u 
I'.r vMiih.ii Kr*l on lliv I llnn>i'.. .nit I lltMlrd (l>>\\ n !« > llir Mi;. 
sissippi Mr r.MiliniU"(l In:. |«Mnnr\ down llu" I'jr.il I'.i 
lluM ol \\ .ihM ,'. Iill hr 1 r.u lird lis inonlh {\\\ \|>i il. i(»S/ ). 
Tlic Mississippi Vjilloy Olniniod for Fnuirr. I .1 S.illc 
n.inu'il llir romili \ .il tlir inonlli ol llir M issisMppi. I onr. 
i.in.i. in hoiit'i .>| Kint;' Louis ol I'l.nii*- \ Jioil di'.l.nur 



l^^i 









^^>jjP 



I . 



*^Mi'!| r:^y* 




4;> 



m ^ 







A-^'<- 



■,•.*;* 



X 






dl 



I A •.AMI" I ANUINt; ON 1111' I I' \ A S COASI'. 

.il)o\(' llu' ni.Milh ol llu' \\\c\ hr '.cl np .1 colnmn .nul .1 
(lo'.s, ll\inn'. wnr Min:; lt\ llir )o\.)n'. I'UMulinirn. 
innis WAM (' Inrd. .nul I .1 S.illr ni .1 loud \i>H(' pi « n l.nnu-d. 
"In lIu" n.nnr ol I oins llu- (inMl. Kin,!'. »'l l''i.iiut\ I do 
t.ilvc possession ol llm. (-onnlM ol I onr. 1,111.1. \\\c sr.is. 
li.nI>ois. foils. l>.i\s. sli.nls. .ind .ill llir n.ili\«"s. ix^oplcs, 
i'ilit'S. low lis. mnu's. lisluMirs. slir.im^;. .nid inns .iloni;' 
(lir Mississippi .ni«l llio iixris wliirli dis«li. 11 r.c mlo il " 



I06 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRYo 

La Salle Attempts to Plant a Colony at the Mouth of the 
Mississippi. — La Salle and his party were the first white 
men to travel from the upper part of the great river to its 
mouth. Turning' their boats up the stream, they made 
their way back to Canada. La Salle then returned to 
France and reported his discoveries to the king. King 
Louis was so well pleased that he gave the bold explorer 
four ships and plentiful supplies to found a colony at the 
-mouth of the Mississippi. The expedition sailed by the 
way of Florida and the Gulf of INIexico. They missed the 
mouth of the Mississippi, however, and, going too far 
west, landed on the shores of Texas at Matagorda Bay 
(1685). 

Death of La Salle — La Salle built a fort on the Texas 
coast. Leaving part of his company at the fort, he set out 
with a few companions on the long overland journey to 
Canada to get help. La Salle was hated by some of his 
followers on account of his stern rule. When the party 
had passed .the Trinity River these discontented men 
quarreled with the nephew of La Salle and killed him. 
Then, to save themselves, they resolved to kill their 
leader. A shot from a traitor hiding in the tall grass 
pierced the heart of the heroic La Salle. In the forests of 
eastern Texas a faithful priest buried the body of the 
iron-hearted Frenchman who had done more than any 
other to extend the limits of French dominion in the W^est. 

La Salle's Plan Carried Out. French Territory in Amer- 
ica. — Thirty years after the death of La Salle his plan 
for a French settlement at the mouth of the ^Mississippi 
was carried out, and the city of New Orleans was 
founded. From the time when Jacques Cartier set up his 



THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE. 



107 



wooden cross on the bank of the St. Lawrence until La 
Salle raised his column at the mouth of the Mississippi 
was a period of nearly a hundred and fifty years. From 
the founding of the first French settlement at Port Royal, 
near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in 1605, to the found- 
ing of New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi, 
in 1 7 18, a little over a hundred years had passed. A line 
of forts stretching in the shape of a great bow now ex- 
tended along the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the 
Mississippi from one end of this territory to the other. 

Who was La Salle? What did he do on his arrival in America ? Where did he after- 
ward build a fort ? Tell about his rule of Fort Frontenac. What did La Salle hope to do? 
Tell about Father Marquette's explorations ; the effect of the news upon La Salle. Tell 
about La Salle's great exploration; about the claim he made for France; the name he 
gave the country. Where did La Salle then go? Tell about his next expedition ; about 
his death. When was his plan of settlement carried out? How many years from Cartier 
to La Salle? from the founding of Port Royal to the founding of New Orleans? What 
was the shape of the French territory ? 




NEW ORLEANS IN I730. 



I08 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Pictures of Life in the Colonies. 



General View of the Colonies. 

Three Hundred Years Ago. — If some fairy by waving a 
magic wand could show us our country as it appeared 
about three hundred years ago what changes would she 
have to make ! All of our towns and cities, railroads, tel- 
egraphs, wagon roads, bridges, churches, schools, farm- 
houses, fields of cotton and of grain would disappear. 
In their stead would be one great stretch of forest and 
prairie, inhabited by wandering Indians and wild animals. 
For, you must remember, it was about three hundred 
years ago that Jamestown was founded. The only 
white settlers then in all of North America besides the 
little group of Englishmen on the banks of the James 
River, in Virginia, were a few Spaniards at the town of 
St. Augustine, in Florida, other Spaniards at scattered 
settlements in Mexico, and some Frenchmen just arrived 
at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. No one knew how far 
westward from the Atlantic coast the North American 
continent extended. Many believed that some strait or 
water passage could be found connecting the Atlantic with 
the Pacific. 

One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago. — Let us suppose our 
fairy by another wave of her magic wand could carry us 
forward to a time halfway between the founding of James- 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. IO9 

town and the present day. One hundred and fifty years 
have passed since our first picture. During this time many 
changes have taken place. Of the three nations who first 
sent colonists to this country, one, the Spanish, has not 
extended its settlements, but is still confined to Florida 
and Mexico. The French have pushed up the St. Law- 
rence River, through the Great Lakes, and down the Mis- 
sissippi to its mouth, founding few settlements, but estab- 
lishing many forts and trading posts, making friends w^ith 
the Indians, and claiming the country for their king. But 
the people who have increased most in numbers and have 
taken the firmest hold upon America are the English. 
Listead of one struggling settlement on the banks of the 
James, there are now thirteen English colonies, bordering 
the Atlantic coast from New Hampshire to Georgia. 
These thirteen English colonies were the beginning of our 
great and powerful country, the United States. We shall 
now study something of the manners and customs of the 
settlers, and try to find out what sort of people our colonial 
forefathers were in their everyday life. 

The English Colonies. — The thirteen English colonies 
have been studied by you in three groups : ( i ) The South- 
ern colonies, including Virginia and her neighbors, 
Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia; (2) 
the Northern, or New England, colonies, including Mas- 
sachusetts and her neighbors, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
and New Hampshire; (3) the Middle colonies, including 
Pennsylvania and her neighbors. New York, New Jersey, 
and Delaware. 

These colonies lay along the Atlantic coast from Mas- 
sachusetts (which then included the present State of 



no THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Maine) on the north to Georgia on the south. The 
Alleghany Mountains marked the western limit of the 
white settlements, although the whole region as far west 
as the Mississippi River was claimed by several colonies. 
The oldest colony, and also the largest, was Virginia. 
Next in age to Virginia came tlie New England colony of 




MAP OF THE COLONIES. 



Massachusetts, then the Middle colony of New York; 
Georgia was the youngest colony. The baby sisters in 
size then, as now, were Rhode Island and Delaware. 

Differences in Language and Customs. — While the people 
of the thirteen colonies were chiefly English, yet there 
were among them many settlers from other nations. In 
New York the Dutch were numerous; in New Jersey and 



PICTURi:S OF LITE IN Till-: COLONIES. I I 1 

Delaware, Swedes; in Pennsylvania and (Jeor^ia, (icr- 
nians; in Sonth Carolina, French. These pe(jple j^rad- 
nally learned the lui^lish language, and in time all he- 
came Americans. Yet for a long while they kept up many 
of the customs of their old homes, and thus caused dif- 
ferences between the colonies. 

Difference in Religion. — \n those days religious belief 
made a much greater difference between people than it 
does now. We have seen that the English colonists were 
not all of the same religion. In New England most of 
the people were Puritans, or Separatists; in the Southern 
colonies members of the Church of England, or Episcopal 
Church, were numerous. Pennsylvania was the home oi 
Quakers, and Maryland of R(jman Catholics. While 
Roger Williams in Khode Island, Lord Baltimore in 
Maryland, and William Penn in Pennsylvania tried to 
provide fair treatment for those of different religious 
views, yet in most of the colonies tli(jse dencjminations 
not in power were oppressed by harsh laws. Thus the 
religious beliefs of the settlers caused the colonies to 
differ. 

Difference in Occupations.— The ])eople of the Southern 
colonies were chielly farmers. Most of the farms cov- 
ered hundreds of acres, and these large farms were called 
plantati(jns. The chief crops were tobacco (in Maryland, 
Virginia and North Carolina) and rice and indigo (in 
South Carolina and Georgia). Very little cotton was 
then raised. 1'here were few towns in the Southern 
colonies. The homes of the planters were c)n the banks 
of deep rivers, so that when cloth, tools, and such things 
as the colonists themselves could not make were needed, 



112 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

these goods could be bought from EngHsh ships that 
landed almost at their doors. For this reason there were 
scarcely any stores in the South. In the New England 
colonies the soil was not rich as in the South, and farming 
did. not pay. Small patches of ground were cultivated, 
but the people made their living chiefly by fishing and 
trading. So there were many towns and villages and no 
large ])lantations. In the Middle colonies, as in the 
South, farming was a favorite occupation. Wheat, oats, 
and rye were the usual crops. 

Tell something about the appearance of our country when Jamestown was founded, three 
hundred j'cars ago. What changes had taken place one hundred and fifty years later — half- 
way between the founding of Jamestown and to-day? What can you say of the prog- 
ress of English settlements? Name the colonies included in each of the three groups we 
have studied. What were the boundaries of the colonies, taken as a whole? Which was 
the oldest colony? the youngest? the largest? the smallest? Tell about the different 
languages and customs among the colonists ; the difference in religion ; in occupations. 



Story of a New England Boy. 

Let us picture in our minds the home life of a New 
England boy of colonial times. 

The Early Morning — It was hardly 
cold December mornine 



daylight 




A NEW ENGLAND KITCHEN. 



one 
when twelve-year-old Josiah 
Ouincy was awakened by 
his mother calling to him 
and to his brother Ezekiel 
that it was time to get up. 
The boys hurried into 
their clothes, their teeth 
chattering in the cold, and 
hastened downstairs to do 
their share of the morn- 
ing's work. There were 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. II3 

no stoves in those days. The cooking was done in the 
great kitchen fireplace, which was high enougli for a man 
to stand in without sto(jping, and big enough to liold 
nearly a wagonkjad of wood. The father had ah'eady 
scraped away the ashes whicli he had placed over the 
burning logs the night before. As matches were un- 
known the fire was not allowed to die out, but at night the 
coals were carefully covered with ashes. If l)y mis- 
chance there were no coals, fire was kindled by striking a 
piece of steel against a flint rock until the sparks came 
and were caught in dry shavings or scorched linen cloth. 

Occupation before Breakfast. 
— As the boys stood before the 
fire rubbing their cold hands 
the mother busied herself pre- 
paring to cook mush in one of 
the pots that hung from an 
iron hook over the fire, and to 
roaj^t in the hot ashes the po- 
tatoes and dried herring-fish 
which the father had just ,-x.int an u steel. 

brought up from the cellar. 

The cellar was a large, dark room dug under the house, in 
which were stored heaps of potatoes, turnips, and a])ples, 
and other articles of food for winter use. Ezekiel, hap- 
pening to glance toward the window, suddenly called out, 
''Look, it is snowing again !" Both boys ran toward the 
window and climbed into a chair (for the window sill was 
higher than their heads). They peered through the little 
panes of coarse green glass at the snowflakes that fell 
noiselessly against the window. Their older sister, Com- 




114 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



fort, called tbeni to come with her to help milk the cows; 
and Imttoning- up their coats tight under their chins, and 
})ulling- their hats down OAcr their ears, the boys, each 
with a bucket under his arm, scampered through the snow 
ahead of their sister. After the milking Josiah drew 
some water from the well with a bucket huno- from a lono- 

pole called a well sweep, 
while Ezekiel carried a buck- 
etful into the house for his 
mother. 

Queer Names — You must 
have noticed what queer 
names the New England 
boys and girls of that time 
had. The father and mother 
of Josiah and Ezekiel were 
known as Goodman and 
Cioodwife Ouincy. Besides their older sister. Comfort, 
there were the eight-year-old sister. Deliverance, and little 
Thankful, the baby. Their mother's given name was 
Seaborn, because she was born on the ship that brought 
her parents from England. 

Duties of the Household — Breakfast over, the boys drove 
the cows to the "common," a large open field used by 
all the townspeople as a pasture. Then they got ready for 
school. iMeanwliile the mother and sisters were not idle. 
Goodwife Ouincy prepared to make soap in one of the 
huge kettles in the tireplace, while Comfort with the big 
si)inning wheel spun into thread for cloth some wool 
which her father had sheared from the sheep. When 
the cloth was made, or woven, it was cut out and stitched 




Ol.n WKLL SWKKr. 



PICTURES OF LIFK IN Tl I IC COLONIKS. 



^15 



into warm clothes. The sewing was done with the 
fingers, for there were no sewing-machines in those days. 
Little Deliverance, after sweeping the room, seated herself 
by the baby's cradle, with her knitting in her lap; for 
althongh only eight years old, she was a good knitter and 
had already made a pair of big stockings for each of her 
brothers. 

His School. — The school which Josiah and Ezekiel at- 
tended was tanght by a man two months in the winter. 
Only boys attended the winter school. In the snmmer 
came the girls' time. 
Then a lady teacher 
was employed, and a 
school for girls and 
little boys was held 
for two months. 1die 
salary of the teachers 
was small, yet they 
did not have to pay 
anything for board. 

The teacher lived in tnrn at the homes o\' his ])n])i1s, stay- 
ing longest with thc^se families that had most children in 
school. Goodman and Cc^odwife Onincy always welccMncd 
the teacher, and gave him the best fcxxl on the table and 
the warmest place by the Hre. On the long winter even- 
ings he helped the boys with their lessons and sometimes 
held the yarn for O^nfi^rt as she spnn, or sometimes he es- 
corted her to spinning matches or to qnilting jxirtics. 
Dancing ])arties and theaters were strictly forbidden. 
When Josiah and Ezekiel are older they will be sent to 
Harvard College, which was sitnated three miles from 




COLONIAL FURNITURE. 



Il6 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Boston and was the oldest college in all the colonies. 
Girls were not admitted to any college. 

The Schoolhouse and Schoolbooks Th^ schoolhouse was 

made of rough boards, and contained one room with a 

great fireplace in 
He that ne er Jeams his A, B, C^ one end. The seats 
Eor ever .will a Blockhead be ; were benches with 



no backs, and so 
high that the feet 
of the smaller boys 
could not touch the 
tloor. For a desk 
a wide plank, or 
shelf, projecting 
from the wall was 
used. Blackboards 
and maps were un- 
known. The books 
studied were the 
Horn Book, the 
New England 
Primer, the Cate- 
chism, and the Bi- 
ble. The Horn 
Book was a sheet 
of pasteboard on which were written the letters of the 
alphabet and as many easy words -as could be crowded 
upon it. This pasteboard was set in a frame like a slate, 
and both sides covered with thin sheets of horn, through 
which the letters could be seen, and which kept them from 
being soiled by the pupils' fingers. There were no copy- 




TAGE FROM NEW ENGLAND I'RIMER. 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



117 




CANDLE MOLDS. 



books and arithmetics, but the teacher taught his pupils 
to write and "cipher" without a book. 

Saturday's Work and Play — Saturday then, as now, was 
hohday. Sometimes Josiah and Ezekiel were kept busy 
all day Saturday helping to churn or to dig potatoes or 
to make candles (for there were no lamps in those days, 
and gas and electric lights 
had not been dreamed of). 
"Dip" candles were made 
by dipping a wick into 
melted tallow, then cool- 
ing it and dipping it again 
until enough tallow stuck 
to the wick. ''Mold" can- 
dles were made by pour- 
ing the melted tallow into 

hollow tin tubes the size of candles. But the boys often 
had most of Saturday to themeslves. Then they were 
off to the woods to set traps for rabbits or foxes, or with 
other boys they slid down the snowy hillsides on their 
homemade sleds, or skated on the ice of the brook. A fa- 
vorite game was playing soldier. One of the boys was 
chosen captain; then arming themselves with sticks for 
guns, they marched or halted at the captain's order, or 
charged upon make-believe Indians, concealed behind 
piles of brush. 

The Books in His Home. — Books for children's reading 
were not made in those days. Indeed, books of any kind 
were scarce and costly. On the bookshelf in Josiah's 
home, however, were eight or ten books. Here are the 
names of some of them : The Lives of the Martyrs, The 



ii8 THE beginner's history of our country. 

Dreadful Effects of Popery, The Lazv of Nations, The 
Iinprovement of the Mind. Not very interesting to a boy 
do these sound. But there were two otlier books which 
Josiah and Ezekiel had read so often that the covers were 
getting worn and the binding loose. On the long winter 
evenings when there were no lessons to be studied the 
boys loved to stretch themselves on the floor in front of 
the lire, and by the light of the blazing logs bury them- 
selves in the delightful pages of Pilgrim's Progress and 
Robinson Crusoe. And then on one end of the bookshelf 
was a pile of "almanacs," one for each year for the last 
twenty years. These "almanacs" contained scraps of 
history, poetry, anecdotes, and jokes, and they were full 
of interest to every member of the family able to read. 

His Sabbath — On Saturday evening the family began 
to get ready for Sunday. After sunset on Saturday no 
games were allowxd, nor could Robinson Crusoe or the 
almanacs be read. Before the evening prayer was offered 
the father called all the larger children around him and 
had them repeat the catechism and some of the hymns or 
psalms they had already committed to memory. 

Sunday morning found our two boys 
at church dressed in brand-new suits 
made by their mother and older sister. 
There was a large congregation, for the 
law was that anyone staying away from 
STOCKS. church save for sickness or some equally 

good excuse might be arrested and made 
to pay a fine or be put in the stocks. As Goodman 
Quincy was a church officer he took his seat near the pul- 
pit. His wife sat on the side of the church reserved for 




prcTURKS OF I.IFI-: IN Tin-: colonies. 119 

women. Josinh and ^>.ckicl took their i)laces with the 
ehiUh'en jjehind the gTown people. There was no organ 
and no choir. A man, called the clerk, stood up in front 
of the pulpit and read out one line of the hymn at a time; 
then all the people sang it. On the pulpit beside the Bible 
was an hourglass, which looked like two little glass fun- 
nels joined together at the small ends and with the large 
ends closed. One half of the hourglass was filled with 
sand, and in just one hour all the sand ran down from the 
upper half into the lower half of the glass. Then the 
preacher turned the hourglass over, and in another hour 
the sand ran back. As there were no watches in those 
days hourglasses were often used to measure time. As 
the minister began his sermon the Ijoys listened carefully 
for the text and repeated it over and over to themselves, 
for they knew their father w^ould expect them to say it 
when they reached home. After the text it was hard to 
keep awake, for much of the sermon could not be under- 
stood by children. The minister had turned the hour- 
glass the second time, and l^^zekiel's eyes were half closed, 
when the words "roaring lion," uttered by the ])reacher as 
he brought his fist down on the pul])it with a bang, caused 
the boy to start. lie leaned over to Josiah and proposed 
to liim in a whis])er that they go into the woods the first 
thing next day and look at their new fox trap. Before 
Josiah could answer both 1)oys felt a sharp tap on the back 
of their heads. The ''tithing man," whose duty it was to 
keep the children (piict and the grown people awake, had 
with his long rod, tipi)e(l with a rabbit's foot, rapped the 
heads of the whisperers. You may be sure they sat up 
straight during the rest of the sermon. 



I20 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

His Day in Boston — Sometimes Goodman Ouincy had 
to go to Boston on business, and usually one of the boys 
was allowed to accompany him. As it was a fifteen-mile 
ride old Sol was saddled and bridled early in the morning. 
Josiah climbed up behind his father. Ezekiel stayed at 
home this time, as he went with his father last month. 
When they reached town the horse was hitched to one of 
the racks on the common, and Josiah' s father hurried 
off to transact his business. Meanwhile Josiah wandered 
down to the wharves to see the ships. There were whal- 
ing vessels from the northern seas, with cargoes of whale 
oil and whalebone. Hundreds of small fishing vessels 
from the coasts near by were unloading great quantities 
of fresh fish. A schooner from the West Indies was 
bringing in barrels of molasses, which was made by the 
New Englanders into a cheap liquor, called rum. A ship 
from England was unloading a cargo of cloth, knives, 
tableware, and other things the colonists were not allowed 
to make themselves. There was a ship just getting ready 
to leave for England. She was loaded with great pine 
logs which were to be made into masts for ships. Barrels 
of salted fish w^ere being loaded on other vessels soon to 
sail to the West Indies. There was a large new ship 
which Josiah examined with great curiosity, for some one 
had told him it was a ''slaver," and was to sail to Africa in 
a few days. Just then it was being loaded with casks of 
rum. This rum would be given to African chiefs in ex- 
change for negro men, women, and children captured 
by them. The captive negroes would be stowed away on 
the "slaver" and taken to the Southern colonies, where 
they would be sold as slaves to work the tobacco, rice, and 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 12 1 

indigo plantations. While Josiah was looking at the ship 
the governor's carriage hurried by, driven by a negro 
slave. But there were not many slaves in New England. 
The climate was too cold for them, and they w^ere best 
suited for farm work on large plantations. 

Thus, working, playing, going to school, and attending 
church, the New England boys and girls grew up to be 
industrious, intelligent, churchgoing men and w^omen, 
who did their share in making our country the powerful 
nation it is to-day. 

How old was the New England boy in our story ? Tell what took place before breakfast 
in Josiah's home. What queer names were found ? After breakfast what were the boys' 
duties ? the mother's ? the older sister's ? the younger sister's ? Tell about the school the 
boys attended ; the teacher ; the schoolhouse ; the books studied. What work did the 
boys sometimes do on Saturday ? How did they spend their holidays? What books were 
found in their home ? Tell about the preparation for Sunday. What was the law about 
churchgoing? How were the members of Josiah's family seated in church ? Tell about 
the singing ; the hourglass. What were the children required to remember? Tell about 
the tap on the head Josiah received in church ; about his visit to Boston, and what he saw. 

The Story of a Southern Boy. 

Let us now take a look at the home life of a Southern 
boy and girl in the old colonial times. 

Saturday Morning. — In our minds we can picture a 
white boy, accompanied by a negro companion, wander- 
ing through the woods near the banks of the Rappa- 
hannock River, in the colony of Virginia. The white 
boy carried a gun upon his shoulder, and his hunting- 
suit of coarse, strong cloth was discolored from frequent 
use. The negro boy, who addressed his companion as 
"Mars' George," carried a game bag w^ell stocked with 
squirrels and partridges. He was barefooted, and his 
trousers and shirt showed several patches of different 
colors. His kinky hair could be seen through the holes 



122 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

in the crown of the old hat that came down over his 
ears. A fine setter dog ran through the woods to right 
and left, just ahead of the young hunters. 

His Father's Tobacco Field — Comino- to the edo-e of the 
woods, George and hlack Jasper made their way through 
a great tobacco field in which twenty or thirty negro 
men and women were at work cutting the long-leaved 
plants and placing them in the wagons which were to 
carry them to the great tobacco barns in the distance. 
A white man, called an "overseer," rode about among the 
negroes, directing them in their work. They did not 
seem to mind the hard work nor the hot sun, but w^ere 
laughing and singing at the top of their voices. Their 
songs had strange tunes. Sometimes there were no words, 
only musical sounds, and sometimes they made up the 
words as they sang. Here is one verse of a song the 
negroes often sang : 

" O, whar shall we go w'en de great day comes 

AVid de blowin' er de trumpits en de bangin' er de drums? 

How many po' sinners 'U be kotched out late, 

En fin' no latch ter de golden gate? 

No use fer ter wait till ter-morrer! 

De sun mustn't set on yo' sorrer ! 

Sin's ez sharp ez a bamboo brier, 

O Lord, fetch de mo'ners up liigher !" 

His Home. — As the boys neared the house a negro man 
came out to the end of the long porch toward the tobacco 
field, and blew a blast from a great tin horn. This meant 
twelve o'clock, and was a signal for the field hands to 
stop work for dinner. George handed his gun to Jasper, 
and, bidding him lake the game around the house to the 
kitchen and prepare it to be cooked for supper, ran up to 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



123 



his room to change his soiled liunting suit and bathe his 
face and hands before coming down to dinner. 

While George is getting ready for dinner let us take a 
look at his home. A grassy lawn dotted with stately 
trees stretched away in front of the house toward the 
river, which sparkled in the sunlight just beyond the 
"big road." The house was two stories high with a 







SOUTHERN COLONIAL HOME. 



broad front porch extending the width of the house, 
supported by massive columns. Behind the house, in the 
distance, were the stables and barns, and long rows of 
cabins, called the 'Vpiarters," the homes of the negro 
slaves. To the right of the house was the garden, laid 
out in prim style with perfectly clean walks between well- 
kept beds shaped in triangles, squares, and circles. In 
the part of the garden next the house were the flowers, 
the special care of Elizabeth, or ''Betty," George's sister. 
Here were hedges of lilacs, beds of sunflowers, roses, 
tulips, pinks, peonies, poppies, and hollyhocks. Gera- 



124 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

niums, verbenas, chrysanthemums, and many other of 
our favorite flowers were then unknown. Among the 
vegetables of which George's people had never heard 
were the tomato, the eggplant, and okra. Years after- 
ward the seed of the tomato was brought to this country 
from France, and the plant was cultivated in flower 
gardens for ornament. The fruit was thought for a long 
time to be poisonous, and was called the love apple. 

His Dinner — A negro boy somewhat smaller than Jas- 
per came to the dining room door and rang the bell for 
dinner. George's mother, Mrs. Washington, in a simple 
black gown, took her seat at the head of the table. George 
sat opposite his mother and asked God's blessing before 
beginning to eat, for his father had died three years 
before, and he, as the eldest of his mother's children, 
must take his father's place. On both sides of the table 
were seated the other children — Elizabeth, a girl of thir- 
teen, and the three younger boys, Samuel, Augustine, and 
Charles. A negro man, with long white apron reaching 
from his chin to his knees, waited upon the table. 

Dinner over, the younger boys got their mother's per- 
mission to accompany Uncle Chess, an old negro slave, 
to the river near by to catch fish. George and his mother 
and Elizabeth took their seats on the front porch. Eliz- 
abeth busied herself wath a handkerchief she was em- 
broidering, while George and his mother talked earnestly 
over the affairs of the plantation. 

Entertainment of Visitors. — Late in the afternoon, while 
George, with Jasper's help, was busy in the back yard 
cleaning his gun, two horsemen rode up to the gate in 
front of the house. Mrs. Washington, who had seen 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



125 



them approaching, called to Jasper to run and take charge 
of the gentlemen's horses. George came through the 
house and met the strangers at the front porch with a 
hearty welcome. They proved to be two planters on their 
way to Williamsburg, the capital of the colony. You 
must remember that there were no railroads in those days. 




STAGECOACH AND INN. 



On a few of the most-traveled wagon roads a stagecoach 
passed about once a week, drawn by four or six horses 
and carrying passengers inside with their baggage 
strapped on behind. The roads were so rough that most 
of the traveling was done on horses. The horseback trav- 
eler carried his baggage in great leather "saddlebags." 

The Plantation Parlor — The strangers had hardly taken 
their seats on the porch when Mrs. Washington appeared 
and gave them a cordial greeting, inviting them to pass 
the night at her home. One of the negroes carried their 
saddlebags to the guest room upstairs, which was always 
kept ready for visitors. After supper the family, with 
the two visitors, assembled in the parlor, a large room 
furnished with a shiny black sofa and stiff-backed chairs, 



126 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



its small-paned windows hung with dimity curtains. 
From the great fireplace, adorned with a huge bouquet of 
brihiant-colored autumn leaves, brass andirons shone 
forth like gold. Over the mantel hung a portrait of 
George's father as a young man. On the walls were sev- 
eral other portraits, among them one of George's mother 
in her girlhood. There was a tall mahogany sideboard 
which held a handsome silver bowl, pitcher, and goblets 
that once belonged to George's great-grandfather. In 
one corner of the room was a harpsichord, a musical 
instrument resembling a small three-cornered piano. The 
parlor was lighted 1)y several candles fixed in tall silver 

candlesticks. After some 
time spent in conversation 
one of the guests asked 
Betty to give them some 
music. At once, without 



waiting to be "begged," 
she stepped to the harpsi- 
chord, and played one of 
the pieces her mother had 
taught her. 

The Guest Chamber. — 
Bedtime always came early 
in George's home, and it was the custom to hold family 
prayers before retiring. Since her husband's death Mrs. 
Washington had trained George to, take his father's place 
and read from the prayer book the form of family wor- 
ship. To-night, however, at her request, one of her guests 
led the prayer, after which the goc^l-nights were said, 
and a servant with lighted candle led the strangers up- 




A HARPSICHORD. 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 



127 



ceiling, and from them cur- 



stairs to their room. The bed in this room would seem 
queer to a boy or girl of to-day. In the first place, it 
was so high tliat you would think one would have to 
climb into it with the help of a chair, and if the sleeper 
should chance to roll out of bed he would get a severe 
bump. Then the tall bedposts at the four corners of the 
bed almost touched the low 
tains of spotless white were 
draped. The bedspread, 
homemade and woven in 
fancy patterns, reached 
down to the floor. The 
pillows, arrayed in their 
starched pillow shams, 
rested stiffly upon the bol- 
ster. The sheets were spot- 
lessly clean and the mat- 
tress comfortable, so there 
is no doubt the visitors slept soundly. 

His Sabbath — Sunday morning the household prepared 
for church. The guests accepted Airs. Washington's 
invitation and took seats in the family carriage with Betty 
and her mother, while George on one horse and the two 
younger boys on another accompanied them. On the 
driver's seat of the carriage sat black Caesar, feeling his 
importance as, arrayed in his Sunday best and flourishing 
his whip, he held a tight rein on the spirited horses. By 
his side was the black boy Tom, ready to jump down and 
open the carriage door when a stop was made. As they 
neared the church a number of horses and carriages were 
seen in the shade of the great trees that surrounded the 




CHURCH WASHINGTON ATTENDED. 



128 THE BEGINNER^S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

building, while others were approaching from different 
directions. The church was a small brick building with 
square doors and arched windows. Inside were tall 
straight-backed pews, each entered by a door, which the 
occupant always closed behind him. There was a gallery 
on one side, in which the negroes were seated. The 
minister wore a robe, or surplice, and he reached his high 
pulpit by climbing a winding stairway. The service was 
that of the Episcopal Church. George and his sister and 
brothers each had a prayer book and joined heartily and 
reverently in all the responses. 

His School. — On Monday morning the young folks 
were up bright and early to get ready for school. The 
schoolhouse was five miles distant. A negro manserv- 
ant usually accompanied the children to and from 
school. They rode horseback and carried their din- 
ners with them. It was not a free school, but parents 
paid for the tuition of their children. The attendance 
of pupils was small, chiefly because the planters lived so 
far apart that it w^as almost impossible for children to 
attend regularly. The schoolhouse of that day had un- 
comfortable "homemade" desks and seats, and was not 
supplied with maps or blackboards. It was known as an 
"old-field school," because it stood in an old field that 
from long use had become unfit for cultivation. The 
teacher was sometimes the church sexton, sometimes the 
minister. The girls were usually taught privately at 
home by a governess or tutor. The older boys were sent 
to William and Mary College at Williamsburg. 

Outdoor Life and Sports — The Southern people were 
fond of horses and of horseback riding. Every white 



PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. 1 29 

family kept a horse, and the rich planters had stables 
full of the finest animals. The planter never walked 
except about the house. Every morning his horse, all 
saddled r.nd bridled, groomed and curried until he shone 
like silk, was brought to his door by a negro slave. The 
poor farmer who owned no slave would often spend hours 
tramping through the woods to find and catch his horse 
in order to ride two or three miles to church or to the 
courthouse or to visit a neighbor. Horse racing, fox 
hunting, and deer hunting were favorite sports for men 
and boys. Open-air barbecues were frequent, at which 
plenty of fun was provided for e\^erybody. A Virginia 
newspaper of colonial times gives notice that "On St. 
Andrew's Day there are to be Horse Races and several 
other Diversions for the entertainment of the Gentlemen 
and Ladies at the Old Field near Capt. John Bicker- 
ton's." The program provided, among other things, 
*That a violin be played for by twenty Fiddlers, no person 
to have the liberty of playing unless he bring a fiddle with 
him. After the prize is won they are all to play together, 
and each one a different tune, and to be treated by the 
company." '*That twelve boys of twelve years of age do 
run a hundred and twelve yards for a Hat of the cost of 
twelve shillings." ''That a handsome entertainment be 
provided for the subscribers and their wives; and such 
of them as are not so happy as to have wives may treat 
any other body." 

A Visit to Williamsburg:, the Capital To Southern boys 

and girls of colonial times there was no more joyous 
event than a visit to the capital of the colony. A favorite 
time for the trip was while the lawmakers of the colony 



130 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



were holding their yearly meeting. Then we may picture 
a Virginia planter and his wife with their two oldest chil- 
dren taking their places in the family coach, and amid the 
good-byes of children and servants left behind they are 
whirled away to Williamsburg. They find the little 

town aroused from 
its usual sleepiness. 
Its streets are filled 
with visitors who 
exchange hearty 
greetings w h e n 
they meet, or who 
stand in groups 
eagerly discussing 
the price of tobacco, 
or the speed of a fa- 
vorite horse, or the 

OLD CAPITOL AT WILLIAMSBURG. C O U d U C t of tllC 

royal governor. The hall of the ''burgesses," or law- 
makers, is one of the places they visit in order to 
listen to the speeches. Perhaps Virginia's great orator, 
Patrick Henry, makes their ears tingle and their blood 
beat faster by one of his fiery speeches denouncing 
the king for his mistreatment of his loving subjects. 
Then our visitors attend the horse races, and the boys 
hurrah when their favorite wins. But the girls will not 
be happy until they have been invited to a ball at the 
governor's palace. On the night of the dance the guests 
assemble early. They find the heavy furniture moved out 
of the hall and the floor waxed until it is shining and 
slippery as glass. A multitude of candles in polished silver 




PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COLONIES. I3I 

candlesticks light the house as brilliantly as candles can 
light it. Negro servants hurry to and fro, each one feel- 
ing as important as the governor himself. Several 
negroes seated in a corner diligently tune their violins. 
The favorite dances are the slow and graceful minuet 
and the more lively reel Waltzes are unknown. The 
figures of the dance are usually called out in a loud voice, 
and each gentleman, bowing low to his lady partner and 
catching the tips of her fingers, moves through the stately 
measure. 

The Boy Grown to Manhood. — You have seen that the 
owner of a Southern plantation had a great many people 
to care for and to direct. The children of the planter 
were early trained, like George Washington, to assist 
their parents in managing the plantation. This training 
in the control of important business and in governing 
many servants helped to make of the Southern boys, as 
they grew to manhood, successful army officers, law- 
makers, leaders of men, w^ho played important parts in 
laying the foundation of their country's future greatness. 
The oirls, too, sfrew to be women who ruled within their 
liomes with gentle yet queenly grace, and who in times of 
sorrow and danger set splendid examples of courage and 
self-sacrifice to their children. 

In what colony is the home of the boy in the next story? Tell about his return from a 
hunt ; about the negroes in his father's tobacco field. Describe George's home; the gar- 
den ; the dinner; the arrival of visitors. How did people travel in those days ? Tell about 
the welcome to the guests. Describe the parlor. Tell about Betty's music; family prayers ; 
the guest room. How did George's household go to church ? Describe the church. Tell 
about George's school. How were the girls taught ? Tell about the fondness of the 
Southern colonists for horses; the sports advertised for St. Andrew's Day; the visit to the 
capital ; the places visited at Williamsburg. Describe the ball. Of what value to South- 
ern boys and girls was their home training? 



132 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF Ol'R COUNTRY. 



The French War and the Downfall of 
New France. 



Cot, ON EL (iEOROE Washington. 
A New Enemy Faces the English Colonists. — Wo have 
soon lunv the sliirdy luii^iish settlors alon^- tho Atlantic 
coast ovorcanio ovorv tlilViculty that hcsot thorn. The 
froo/.ini:- coKl of 



^ /'^^ »■ 



^>>-^-r^- 



CANADA c.e^*^ 




i;i r.!NM\r, ov 



Now 1^ 11 i;- 1 a n d 

\v inters, t h 

sciM'chin;^' fo\ ors 

o\ Sonthorn snni- 

ni r s . j)orils oi 

starxalion, attacks 

hy sa\as;c Indians 

— all those dan- 

i^crs and others besides often threatened the settlements 

with destrnction. Pnit hra\o. persovorini^-, indnstrions. 

onr lathers connnered each ononiy that opjHisod thorn 

nntil thirteen haiolish cc^lonies were hrnily established, 

with settlements dottini;- the Atlantic coast from Xe\v 

Hampshire to (icori^ia. Xow, as tho English settlers 

began to push westward beyond tho Alleghany Mountains, 

they wore l)nnight face to face with another enemy. The 

b^-ench «.K\aii>ants of tho Missisippi X'alloy built forts on 



Till-: FRICNCIL WAR. I33 

the western slopes o{ the yVUeghanies and dispntcd the 
progress of the iMii^Hsh. A i;reat conilict now arose to 
settle the question whether Frenchmen or Englishmen 
were to he masters of North America. 

The Beginning: of the Quarrel — On a cold, rainy Deeem- 
her day the soldiers of one of the new French forts in 
the Western w ildcrness were startled to see, coming out 
of the woods, a tall young man leading a small party con- 
sisting of four or five white men and sexeral Indians. 
The visitors, weary and mud-stained from a long journey 
of nearly li\e hundred miles, were kindly receixed into 
the fort. The young leader at once asked to see the 
French commander, and delivered to him a letter from 
the governor of Virginia. In this letter the governor 
said he was surprised that the 1^^-ench should huild a fort 
on land which everyhody knew^ l)elonged to the English; 
he demanded that the Frenchmen should at once march 
themselves hack to their own territory. Fie added that he 
hoped his messenger, Major Washington, would he kindly 
received, and that a favorahle answer would he returned. 

Major Georg:e Washing^ton — Major Washington, the 
go\'ernor's messenger, was the same George Washington 
whose hoyhood home has heen descrihed. George had 
left school at fifteen, with a fair knowledge of arithmetic, 
geometry, and surveying, a good penman, and skilled in 
keeping accounts. He was tall, strong, and active, fond 
of running, leaping, and wrestling, and ahle to ride the 
wildest horse. It is said that he could throw a stone 
across the Rappahannock River at a place where nohody 
else has ever heen ahle to do it. His half-hrother, Law^- 
rence, many years older than George, had been a soldier 



134 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



in the West Indies. George greatly loved this half- 
brother, and when visiting his home at Mount Vernon, 
on the Potomac River, listened with delight to the young 
soldier's stories of the wars. Returning to his own home 
after one of these visits, he would make soldiers of his 
playmates and have them parade and engage in make- 
believe battles. When only sixteen years of age he was 
employed by Lord Fairfax to survey that nobleman's 
lands lying between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany 
Mountains. This work was so well done that at eighteen 
he was appointed public surveyor, and shortly afterward 
was made major of mi- 
litia, or home troops. 
He was twenty-one 
years old when chosen 
by the governor of Vir- 
ginia for the difficult 
and dangerous task of 
visiting the French forts 
in the ^^'est. 

Washington's Return 
from the French Fort. — 
The French commander 
had no idea of giving up 
his fort. He wrote a 
polite answer declining 
Gov'Crnor Dinwiddle's 

request, and with this letter W^ashington set out on his 
long homeward journey. It was now in the middle of 
winter. Forests, rivers, and mountains had to be crossed, 
and there were neither roads nor bridges. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



The horses of 



THE FRENCH WAR. 1 35 

the little party seemed about to give out, so Washington 
and one companion pushed forward on foot. An Indian 
shot at Washington, but missed him. The would-be mur- 
derer was caught, and Washington's companion wanted 
to kill him, but Washington set him free. While crossing 
a ri\er a large piece of floating ice struck the pole with 
which Washington was guiding the raft, and he was 
thrown into the freezing water. He managed to get hold 
of the raft and scraml)le back upon it, but the lloating ice 
compelled him and his companion to spend the night on an 
island in the river. The next morning the river was 
frozen over, and they walked to the bank on the ice. At 
last they reached the capital of Virginia, and delivered to 
the governor the French commander's letter. 

Washington Gains a Victory and Suffers a Defeat. The 
War Beg^ins. — The successful performance of his danger- 
ous task made young Washington .famous throughout 
Virginia. When, soon afterward. Governor Dinwiddie 
sent troops to drive the French from a fort at the head of 
the Ohio River, Washington, now known as "Colonel" 
Washington, was one of the officers in command. On 
his way to the fort, while leading a small advance party, 
Washington defeated a French force at Great Meadows, 
in southwestern Pennsylvania. With this fight the great 
French V;'ar began. By the death of his superior officer 
Washington became commander of the expedition. On 
July 4, his little army was attacked at Fort Necessity 
(not far from Great Meadows) by a French force twice 
as large as his own. His men were tired, hungry, and 
drenched by the incessant rain. They fought bravely 
nearly all day; then their powder began to give out. At 



136 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



eight o'clock in the evening the fighting stopped. Wash- 
ington agreed to surrender on the condition that his men 
be allowed to march back to their homes, carrying their 
arms with them. If young Colonel Washington could 
have known what 
a glorious day the 
4th of July would 
afterward become 
for his countrymen 
he might have felt 
less gloomy and 
discouraged as he 
signed the papers 
of surrender by the 
light of a flickering 
candle on the night 
of that rainy 4th. 
But no wonder he 
felt discouraged; 
not an English flag 
now waved west of 
the Alleghanies. 

Braddock's Defeat. Washington Saves Part of the Army. 
— England now took a hand in the war. General Brad- 
dock was sent over with an army of trained soldiers. 
Washington and several companies of Virginia troops 
joined Braddock's forces. They set out across the moun- 
tains to take Fort Duquesne, at the head of the Ohio 
River — the same French fort that Washington had tried 
to capture the year before. General Braddock was a 
brave officer who had been in many battles in European 




GENERAL BRADDOCK S ROUTE. 



THE FRENCH WAR. I37 

wars. But all his previous battles were against soldiers 
who fought like his own men, in regular ranks and in the 
open held. He knew nothing of battles in the woods, 
against an enemy who hid behind trees. His army 
marched to the strains of music, and with tiags tiying, as 
if they were on parade. They had almost reached Fort 
Duquesne when they were attacked by a force of French 
and Indians concealed in thick woods. The English 
troops bravely formed in line and fired in the direction 
of their enemies, whom they could not see. Their shots 
did much damage to the trees, but little to their hidden 
foes, while they themselves, in plain view and unprotected, 
were shot down like sheep. The woods re-echoed with 
the noise of rifie shots and Indian yells. Washington 
and the Virginians sprang behind trees and fallen logs 
ready to fire whenever an Indian or a Frenchman showed 
himself. Washington had two horses shot under him, 
and his coat was pierced by four bullets. , At last Brad- 
dock gave the order to retreat. Then he fell with a bullet 
in his breast, and his men fled in terror and confusion. 
That any of them escaped was due to Washington and the 
Virginia troops. 

Washing-ton Captures a Prize — Washington was now 
made commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. While 
on his way to Williamsburg, the capital, he was invited 
to take dinner at the home of a hospitable planter. He 
declared he had not time to stop, but finally consented to 
do so. At dinner he met several other guests, among them 
Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow with dark brown 
hair and eyes and pleasing manners. Washington found 

the company so agreeable that when his servant brought 
10 



138 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



his horse to the door for him to depart he ordered the 
animal to be taken back to the stable. It was after break- 
fast next morning before he could tear himself away. In 
a short time he was back again, and before he left to join 
his troops Mrs. Martha Custis had promised to become 
Mrs. George Washington. 

The War Spreads. Washington's Third March against 
Fort Duquesne — All the English colonies now joined in 

the war. Most of the 
Indian tribes helped the 
French. The powerful 
Iroquois, of New York, 
however, had hated the 
French ever since Cham- 
plain sided with their 
enemies, and they would 
not agree now to help 
them. There was fight- 
ing in the North, in the 
South, and on the West- 
ern frontiers. Once more 
an army of English and 
colonial troops marched 
against Fort Duquesne. 
The defenders of the place, being nearly out of provisions, 
set fire to the fort and fled. Washington, leading the ad- 
vance guard of the attacking army, planted an English 
flag on the smoking ruins. The name of the fort was 
changed to Fort Pitt in honor of William Pitt, the great 
English statesman and friend of America. In later years 
Fort Pitt became the city of Pittsburg. 




MARTHA WASHINGTON. 



TUK FRENCH WAR. 



139 












THE FRENCH WAR. I4I 

Washington Receives the Thanks of the Virginians. — 

The capture of Fort Duquesne put an end to French 
attacks in the South. Washington gave up his office in 
the army, went home, and was married to Mrs. Custis. 
Flis neiglihors at once chose him one of the burgesses 
to make the laws for the V^irginia colony. When he took 
his seat in the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg the 
Speaker, or President, arose and in the name of the people 
of Virginia thanked Colonel Washington for his brave 
deeds in the war. When he finished, Washington stood 
up to answer. But he was not used to making speeches, 
and he could only blush and stammer without saying a 
word. At last the Speaker helped him by saying, ''Sit 
down, Mr. Washington. Your modesty is equal to your 
bravery, and that is greater than my words can describe." 
The Battle of ftuebec. — The last great battle of the war 
was at Quebec, in Canada. A French army under Gen- 
eral Montcalm held the city. General Wolfe, with an 
English army, sailed up the St. Lawrence to take the 
place. For weeks the English officers tried in vain to 
find some way by which their men could be led up the 
steep cliffs upon which Quebec is situated. At last Gen- 
eral Wolfe discovered with his spyglass a narrow winding 
path leading from the water's edge to the heights above. 
In the darkness of night an English force landed and 
climbed in single file the steep ascent. All reached the top 
before they were discovered. A fierce battle followed. 
The gallant Wolfe was wounded in the wrist. He 
wrapped a handkerchief around the wound and continued 
to lead the charge. Another ball struck him in the breast. 
As he was carried from the field he heard the cry, 'They 



142 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

run, they run !*' "Who run ?" asked the dying general. 
"The French," was the reply. 'Then God be praised; I 
die happy!" he exclaimed, and breathed his last. The 
French general, Montcalm, was also mortally wounded. 




BRITISH ARMY AT QUEBEC. 

When told he could live only a few hours he replied, "So 
much the better; for I shall not live to see the surrender 
of Quebec." The fall of the capital of New France closed 
the war. Peace was made in 1763. 

Some Results of the French War At the beginning of 

the war the French claimed Canada, the Great Lake 
region, and the Mississippi Valley. At the close of the 



THE FRENCH WAR. 



143 



war tlie victorious English took possession of all French 
territory east of the Mississippi River. France hastily 
presented to Spain her territory west of the Mississippi, 

to keep it from falling 
into the hands of her 
hated enemies, the 
English. Thus at one 
blow poor France lost 
every foot of the vast 
region won for her by 
the heroism of Cartier, 
Champlain, Marquette, 
La Salle, and others of 
her brave sons. The 
sturdy English colo- 
nists, with the help of 
the mother country, had conquered one more enemy that 
opposed their progress. 

Name some of the difficulties overcome by the English colonists. What great conflict 
finally faced them? Tell about the beginning of the quarrel between the French and the 
English settlers ; about George Washington's life after leaving school. What answer did 
the commander of the French fort give to Major Washington ? Describe Washington's 
return. Tell about the fight at Great Meadows ; at Fort Necessity. Who was General 
Braddock ? Tell about Braddock's expedition ; about Colonel Washington's conduct and 
his promotion ; about his meeting with Mrs. Martha Custis. What can you say of the 
spread of the war ? Tell about the capture of Fort Duquesne; about Washington's at- 
tempt to make a speech before the Virginia Assembly ; about the last great battle of the 
war. What changes of territory' resulted from the French War? 




NORTH AMERICA AT CLOSE OF FRENCH WAR. 



144 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

War of the Revolution, 



General George Washington, 
causes of the war. 

The Quarrel with England — The English colonists had 
not long been free from clanger from their French enemies 
before they found themselves getting into another quar- 
rel. This time it was a family trouble — a quarrel with 
their mother country, England. The settlers loved old 
England, the land of their fathers, and they were proud 
of their kinship with her. But the mother country had 
not always dealt fairly with her children across the sea. 
As the colonists grew stronger and better able to take 
care of themselves they became more and more impatient 
of the unjust treatment of England. At last, when they 
could endure it no longer, they openly resisted the 
mother country, cut loose from her control, and set up 
housekeeping for themselves. Let us see how the quar- 
rel began. 

Some Complaints of the Colonists The kings of Eng- 
land did not seem to care what sort of men they sent to 
America to govern the colonies. Instead of picking out 
wise and good men who would feel a real interest in the 
welfare of the Americans, they often appointed worthless 
men, who were anxious to get the governor's salary, but 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. I45 

who despised the people they ruled, and were constantly 
quarreling with them. Then there were some English 
laws that were aimed to make English merchants and 
traders richer, hut which, at the same time, kept the Amer- 
icans poor. For example, the colonists were not allowed 
to cut do\^^n a pine tree over two feet in diameter, except 
to make a mast for an English ship. All furs of animals 
taken in our woods must be sent to England, and all our 
goods must be carried in English ships. We were not 
allowed to make our own hats, but must buy them in 
England. 

Taxation without Representation. The Stamp Tax. — 
England had spent a great deal of money to carry on the 
French War, and she owed a large debt in consequence. 
As the war had been partly for the benefit of the col- 
onists she decided to make them help pay this debt. So 
a tax called the stamp tax was ordered to be collected 
from them. All wTitten bargains, marriage licenses, and 
many other papers had to have stamps on them, and these 
stamps cost all the way from one cent to sixty dollars. 
The Americans did not mind paying a tax which they 
themselves had decided was right. But no Americans 
were allowed to be members of the English Parliament, 
by which the stamp law and all other tax laws of England 
were passed. To the colonists this taxing them without 
their consent — without their being represented in Par- 
liament — was the last straw that broke the camel's back. 
From one end of the colonies to the other the people 
repeated the words of an American speaker, "Taxation 
without representation is tyranny." They declared they 
would never pay the tax. 



146 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The Tax on Tea. — So much objection was raised against 
the stamp tax that England finally decided not to try 
to make the colonists pay it. But she was bent on getting 
money from them in some way, so she placed a tax on 
the tea that they used. The tax was made so small, and 
the Americans were so fond of tea, that it was thought 
this tax would be readily paid. But the English rulers 
did not understand the feelings of the Americans. It 
w^as not the amount of tax that they objected to, but the 
whole plan of taxing them without their consent. So 
they became angrier than ever with England. They 
stopped drinking tea. Merchants refused to handle it. 
In Boston a crowd of men dressed as Indians one night 
went on board a ship that was waiting in the harbor to 
unload its cargo of tea, broke open the tea boxes, and 
threw the tea into the water. 

England Gets Angry and the Quarrel More Bitter. — When 
the news of the "Boston Tea Party," as it was called, 
reached England there was great indignation, and it was 
decided that the obstinate Bostonians should be punished. 
A law was passed forbidding any ship to enter or leave 
the harbor of Boston. As there were no railroads in 
those days this law had much the same effect as if all the 
railroad trains to-day entering one of our cities should 
cease running. Business was ruined. But all the col- 
onists stood by Boston in her trouble. Maryland sent 
her barrels of flour, and Georgia sent her bags of rice. 
"I am willing," said George Washington, of Virginia, 
"to raise a thousand men, pay their expenses myself, and 
lead them to the relief of Boston." Representatives from 
nearly every colony met at Philadelphia to consider what 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 47 

was best to be done. In this meeting, known as the 
"Continental Congress," it was decided to resist the un- 
just laws of England in every way possible. Thus the 
quarrel between England and her colonies became more 
bitter. 

After the French War what new quarrel did the English colonists soon have ? What did 
that quarrel lead to ? Mention some things the colonists complained of. Why did Eng- 
land wish to tax her colonists ? What was the stamp tax? Why did the Americans ob- 
ject to this tax ? What was the result of their objections ? Tell about the tea tax, and 
what the colonists thought of it. How did England punish Boston for the " tea party " ? 
Tell about the sympathy for Boston in other colonies. 

THE FREEING OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Paul Revere's Midnight Eide. — In the beginning 
of the quarrel an army of British soldiers had been 
sent to Boston. The commander of these soldiers now 
heard that the Americans were collecting guns and am- 
munition at the village of Concord, twenty miles away. 
He ordered part of his troops to slip out of Boston 
secretly at night, hurry to Concord, and capture or 
destroy the American supplies before the colonists could 
know anything about his plan. A young farmer named 
Paul Revere found out what the British troops were pre- 
paring to do, and on the night that they started he learned 
what road they expected to take. Jumping on his horse, 
he dashed at full speed down the road between Boston 
and Concord, stopping a moment at every village and 
farmhouse to ronse the people from their beds with the 
cry that the British soldiers were coming. When the 
British reached the village of Lexington, halfway be- 
tween Boston and Concord, they found a small crowd of 
farmers gathered to oppose them. The fight that fol- 
lowed was tlie first battle of the War of the Revolution. 



148 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY, 



Lexington and Concord — The brave farmers could not 
witlistand trained forces. Several Americans were killed; 

the rest withdrew from 
the field. The British 
pushed on to Concord, 
where another fight 
took place. They 
Inirned the houses in 
which the American 
guns were stored, then 
started back to Boston. 
By this time all the 
country around had 
been aroused, and the 
Americans swarmed 
like angry bees around 
the line of march of 
the British. Concealed 
behind trees and fences 
along the road, they 
poured a steady stream 
of bullets into the 
ranks of the weary 
redcoats, who now longed to be safe in their Boston camp 
once more. If the British general had not sent out a 
thousand fresh troops to help them they would never have 
gotten back to Boston. As it was, the number of British 
killed on that bloodv dav was more than ten times as oreat 
as that of the Americans. 

Battle of Bunker Hill — From all parts of Massachu- 
setts and from the adjoining New England colonies 




PAUL REVERE'S ride. 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



149 



EASTERN 
MASSA- 
CHUSETTS. 




BOSTON, 
BUNKER 
HILL, AND 
LEXINGTON, 



troops hurried to Boston eager to drive out the Brit- 
ish army. A hill, afterward 
known as Bunker Hill, 
overlooking the city, was 
occupied by part of the 
American forces. The 
British determined to drive 
the colonists from this po- 
sition. As the British 
line approached the breast- 
works on top of the hill 
the American commander 
gave the order to his men not to fire till they could see 
the whites of their enemies' eyes. Nearer and nearer the 
redcoats approached. Suddenly a sheet of flame burst 
from the American earthworks, there was a loud report, 
and when the smoke cleared away the British had fled to 
the bottom of the hill. Again their officers led them up 
the hill; again they fled before the deadly fire. Bravely 
they made a third attempt. This time the ammunition 
of the Americans gave out, and the patriots were obliged 
to retreat, leaving the British at last in possession of the 
hill. 

The Whole Country Aroused. General Washington — 
Although there were no telegraphs and railroads and 
few newspapers in those days, yet the news of the fight-' 
ing between the king's soldiers and the farmers of Mas- 
sachusetts soon reached all the colonies. The Americans 
believed that if Massachusetts should be beaten a British 
army would be sent to other colonies to enforce the hate- 
ful tax laws of England; and as they had before sent 



150 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



cheering messages and supplies of food to Boston, now 
they prepared to shoulder their guns and march to her 
defense. Another meeting 
of the Continental Congress 
was held at Philadelphia, 
and it was decided that an 
American army should be 
raised and that Colonel 
George Washington, of Vir- 
ginia, should be chosen com- 
mander in chief. 




ENGLISH FLAG. 




General Washington Drives 
the British from Boston. — 
George Washington was 
forty-three years old when 
he became "General" \\'ash- 
ington, commander of the 
.Vmerican forces. A short 
time after the battle of Bun- 
ker Hi 



he took charge of 



FIRST AMERICAN FLAG (1775). 

the army before Boston. He 
at once set to work drilling 
the inexperienced soldiers, at 
the same time doing all he 
could to get muskets, ammu- 
nition, and cannons. Then 
his lines of earthworks were 
thrown up nearer and nearer 
the city. At last a hill over- flag of 1777. 

looking Boston on the opposite side from Bunker Hill 
was occupied one night by Washington's troops. ^Mlen 




f 

i 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. I5I 

the British awoke and saw the cannons of the Americans 
pointing down at them from the top of the hill they at 
first determined to capture the heights. Then remem- 
bering how many men they had lost at Bunker Hill, they 
decided they didn't want to climb any more hills in the 
face of American guns. So the only thing left to do was 
to get on board their ships and sail away. This they 
quickly did, while Washington and his army marched in 
triumph into the city. You may be sure they were given 
a hearty welcome by the happy Bostonians. 

Tell about the plan of the British commander in Boston to destroy the American sup- 
plies; Paul Revere's ride ; the battle of Lexington. Where is Bunker Hill? Describe 
the battle. What was the effect of the news of the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill ? 
What did Congress do? Where did Washington take command of the army? Tell how 
he drove the British from Boston, 

IN THE SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE STATES. 

The British Attack Charleston, South Carolina. — While 
these exciting events were happening in Massachusetts 
the South was also getting a taste of war. The British 
governor of Virginia, at the head of a small force, seized 
a quantity of powder, and tried to get the slaves to take 
up arms against their masters. His force was beaten, 
and the governor himself was chased by the angry Vir- 
ginians on board a British ship in Chesapeake Bay. 

A large British fleet sailed against Charleston, South 
Carolina, the largest city in the South. Fort Moultrie, 
on an island, guarded the entrance to the harbor. The 
fort was built of palmetto logs, and the British balls sank 
into the spongy wood without injuring the walls. The 
Americans did not fire so often, but every shot told on the 
British ships. In the midst of the fight a cannon ball 



152 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

broke the staff supporting the American flag that floated 
over the fort. The flag fell to the ground outside the 
walls in plain view of the enemy. Sergeant Jaspar, a 
brave young South Carolinian, leaped down outside the 
fort, seized the flag, tied it to the sponge staff of a can- 
non, stuck it up in the 
sand, and climbed back 
into the fort unhurt. 
When nine of their ten 
ships were badly crippled 
by American shots the 
British concluded they 
had enough. The fleet 
sailed away, and Charles- 
ton was saved. 

The Colonies Declare 
Themselves Independent 
States. — The Americans 
now saw^ that their re- 
sistance to England only 
made her more deter- 

THE LIBERTY BELL. 

mmed to entorce her 

hated tax laws. So they decided to separate from the 
mother country. On the 4th of July, 1 776, the Congress 
at Philadelphia adopted a Declaration of Independence, 
wa'itten by Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia. The Declara- 
tion proclaimed that we were no longer English colonies, 
but independent States. As soon as the declaration was 
adopted the bell in the tower of the house in which 
Congress met was rung to announce the glad tidings 
to the citizens of Philadelphia. Erom Massachusetts to 




WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



153 







WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 55 

Georgia the news of the Declaration was joyfuUy re- 
ceived, and since then the 4th of July has been celebrated 
as the birthday of the United States. 

Discouragements for Washington After his great suc- 
cess in driving the British out of Boston, things for a 
while went badly with General Washington. He led his 
army to New York to defend that city from an expected 
British attack. But here the British turned the tables on 
him and drove his army from the city. He retreated across 
New Jersey, pursued by a British army. It was winter 
time; his men were poorly supplied with shoes, and their 
feet, cut l:)y the sharp rocks, left bloody tracks in the 
snow. Reaching the Delaware River, he crossed to the 
western side, taking with him every boat he could find, 
so his pursuing enemies could not follow him. The 
Americans were deeply discouraged, and many harsh 
words were spoken against Washington by his own 
people. 

A Victory on Christmas Night. — But George Washing- 
ton never lost hope. He had learned that the time of dis- 
couragement is the time for greatest effort. On Christ- 
mas night his little army again embarked on the 
Delaware Riv^er. Though their hands were so stiff with 
cold that they could hardly hold their guns, and though 
the floating ice in the river threatened to upset their 
boats, they reached the New Jersey bank in safety. Then 
marching swiftly and silently to the town of Trenton, 
they burst upon the British force stationed there, sur- 
prising them in the midst of the dancing and drinking of 
their Christmas festivities. The British quickly surren- 
dered. A few days later Washington gained another 



•156 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

great victory at Princeton, New Jersey, and the British 
were forced back toward New York. These splendid suc- 
cesses showed how great a general was our Washington. 
Philadelphia Taken — But more discouragements were 
in store for the Americans. A large British army sailed 
around to the head of Chesapeake Bay, defeated Wash- 







^ 


y 




' 


t 


< 


h^ 


..€ 







RAISING A LIBERTY POLE IN PHILADELrillA TO CKLKBRAIE THE DECLARATION. 

ington's army in two battles, and occupied Philadelphia. 
Things now looked gloomier than ever. There was great 
suffering among Washington's men. They spent the 
winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in huts that poorly 
protected them from the cold. They had few blankets, 
many had no shirts, and hundreds were barefooted. Again 
unkind things were said of Washington, and an attempt 
was even made to have him removed from command. 

Good News from France. — Tn the midst of these trying 
times there came glad news from across the water. 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 57 

France had decided to help us in our fight against her 
old enemy, England. For some time she had been con- 
sidering this step, when the news of a great victory won 
at Saratoga, New York, by an American army under Gen- 
eral Gates over the British general, Burgoyne, hastened 
the decision. Hearing that French troops were coming to 
our aid, the British left Philadelphia and hastened back to 
New York. Among the French soldiers who fought 
for American liberty was General Lafayette. Washing- 
ton had no braver officer, our country no truer friend, 
than this young Frenchman. 

Tell about the fighting between the Virginians and the troops of the king's governor ; 
the British attack upon Charleston, South Carolina. Why did the colonists decide to sep .- 
rate from England ? Tell about the Declaration of Independence. Where did General 
Washington go after driving the British from Boston ? What discouragements now befell 
him ? What effect did discouragements have upon Washington ? Tell about his victory at 
Trenton ; the capture of Philadelphia by the British ; the winter at Valley Forge. What 
good news came from France? Wiiat hastened the decision of France to help us? What 
effect did the news have upon the British army at Philadelphia ? 

CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR. 

General Greene Sent to Defend the South — After the 
splendid victory at Fort Moultrie, in the beginning of the 
war, the American cause had been faring badly in the 
South. One British victory followed another until Geor- 
gia and South Carolina were overrun by the British. 
Finally, by the advice of Washington, General Greene 
was placed in command of our Southern army. Greene 
soon proved himself a great general. Rarely risking a 
battle with his small army, and often retreating, he 
yet caused such heavy loss to his enemies that in little 
more than a year he had the British forces cooped up on 
the coast, and Georgia and the Carolinas freed from 
British control. 



158 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Battle of King's Mountain — General Greene's suc- 
cess had been made possible by a great victory won 
just before he arrived in the CaroHnas by Amer- 
ican backwoodsmen from beyond the mountains. Many 
hardy frontiersmen from Virginia and from the Car- 




BATTLE OF KING S MOUNTAIN. 



olinas had made homes for themselves on the western 
slopes of the Alleghany Mountains in what is now Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. They kept the Western Indians 
from joining the British, and more than once left their 
homes and crossed the mountains to help the hard-pressed 
American forces. When Georgia and the Carolinas were 
overrun by the British the wilderness homes of these 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 59 

brave pioneers were still free. A British commander led 
his army to the eastern base of the mountains, and sent a 
message to these ''overmountain rebels" that unless they 
desisted from their opposition to British arms he would 
march into their country, hang their leaders, and lay 
waste their country with fire and sword. But alas for the 
proud British leader! this threatening message cost him 
his army and his life. It was quickly carried from set- 
tlement to settlement, and roused the frontiersmen like 
the blast of a trumpet. Trained in many an Indian fight 
to act always with lightning swiftness, an army under 
John Sevier and other pioneer leaders was soon on its 
way across the mountains to punish the insolent British. 
Queer-looking soldiers they were. Clad in buckskin 
trousers and homespun shirts, with bucktails in their hats, 
and armed with long knives and unerring rifles, a British 
officer in beautiful uniform would have laughed to see 
them. They came upon the British at King's Mountain, 
near the western Carolina border. The British were 
posted on top of the ridge. Sevier divided his force, and 
they rushed up the hill on three sides at once. The Brit- 
ish leader was killed, and his army surrendered. This 
great victory raised the hopes of the discouraged South- 
erners, as the battle of Trenton had their Northern 
neighbors. 

Washington's Bold Plan and the Victory that Closed the 
"War — After Greene's success in the Carolinas, General 
Cornwallis, his British opponent, marched his army into 
Virginia. After doing as much damage as he could to 
the Virginians, Cornwallis took his position at York- 
town, near Chesapeake Bay. Washington, who had been 



l6o THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

watching the British in New York, now sent word to our 
friends, the French, to sail their fleet into Chesapeake Bay, 
while he slipped away southward before the British army 
in New York could stop him. Then his plan was to join 
his French allies in an attack upon Cornwallis at York- 
town. This fine plan succeeded perfectly. Poor Corn- 
wallis was entrapped with the Frencli ships on one side 
and an army of Americans and Frenchmen on the other. 
His men resisted bravely, but were compelled to surren- 
der, October 19, 1781. 

England Consents to Our Independence Washington's 

victory at Yorktown closed the war. England saw it was 
no use to try any longer to subdue her rebellious col- 
onies. Besides, there were many Englishmen who be- 
lieved from the first that the Americans were right in 
their resistance. A treaty of peace was signed (1783) 
in which England acknowledged the thirteen colonies to 
be ''free and independent States." The Mississippi River 
was agreed upon as our boundary on the west, the Great 
Lakes on the north, and Florida on the south. 

Our First Independent Government. — At the beginning 
of the Revolution the governors of most of the colonies 
were appointed by the king of England. When the col- 
onies declared their independence they at once established 
State governments, with governor, legislature, judges, 
and other officers chosen by the people, as we have them 
now. But some kind of government over the colonies 
as a whole was also necessary. So during the Revolution 
we adopted a constitution, or form of government, for 
the United States. This first constitution was called the 
"Articles of Confederation.'' Under it we had no Pres- 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. l6l 

ident, no United States judges. There was a Congress 
composed of only one house, which met at Philadelphia, 
then the capital. The Congress could declare war and 
make treaties with foreign nations, but could not levy 
taxes, and had scarcely any power over the people or the 
States. We lived under this constitution for seven years 
after the close of the Revolution before we changed it. 

What can you say of the success of the British in the Southern colonies during the first 
part of the war ? Tell what Genreal Greene accomplished. How did the settlers west of 
the Alleghanies help the American cause? What message was sent to them by a British 
general? What was the result ? Describe the battle of King's Mountain. Where did the 
British general, Cornwallis, go after leaving the Carolinas ? Tell how Washington out- 
generaled Cornwallis. Where did Cornwallis's surrender take place ? What was the effect 
of the victory at Yorktown? What change in the government of the colonies took place 
when independence was declared ? Tell about the " Articles of Confederation." 



1 62 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER X. 



Benjamin Franklin. 



How France Came to Help Us in the Revolution \\'hile 

General W^ashington in this country was lighting for the 
independence of the United States another American, 
with the same purpose 
in view, was working 
and talking for us at the 
capital of France. And 
had not his peaceful 
work beyond the ocean 
been so well done it is 
probable that all the 
bravery of W^ashington 
and his soldiers would 
not have gained our in- 
dependence. Benjamin 
Franklin was the name 

of this fellow-worker with Washington. At the out- 
break of the Revolution Franklin was the most famous 
man in the colonies. Congress sent him to Paris to try 
to get the French to help us. By his good sense, pleas- 
ing manners, great learning, and ready wit he became 
one of the best-known and best-liked men at the French 
capital. He not only persuaded the French to send sol- 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 163 

diers and ships to our aid, but he got them to lend us great 
sums of money with which to buy suppHes for our needy 
troops. When the war was over, FrankHn, then in feeble 
health, started to depart for America. The king ordered 
his ow^n servants to take his American friend to the ship 
which was to carry him home. The king also presented 
him with his picture surrounded with diamonds. 

Boyhood of Franklin. — This famous American and 
friend of kings was once a poor boy. He was born in 
Boston, and was the youngest but two in a family of ten 
boys and seven girls. His father earned his living by 
making soap and candles. It was little Benjamin's work 
to help boil the soap and to put the wicks in the candle 
molds, and' to trim them. /\s soon as his older brothers 
were big enough to work they were hired out by their 
father. Ben learned to read so easily, however, that his 
father thought he would send him to school and make a 
minister of him. At school the boy was soon at the head 
of all his classes. But when his father found out how 
much it was going to cost to send his son to school and 
college, he took him from school and put him to work in 
his shop. Benjamin did not like to make soap and can- 
dles. He sometimes thought of running away to sea, 
as an older brother had done. 

Franklin Becomes a Printer. — Noticing Benjamin's 
fondness for books, his father then determined to make 
him a printer. So Benjamin at twelve years of age was 
apprenticed to his older brother James, who had a print- 
ing office in Boston. He liked his new work because it 
enabled him to read books he could not afford to buy. 
Often he vSat up nearly all night reading a borrowed book 



164 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



which he had promised to return in the morning. Having 

heard some friends of his brother discussing the pieces 

they had written for his brother's newspaper, Benjamin 

determined to try his hand at writing. So, changing his 

handwriting as much as possible, he wrote a piece and 

sHpped it under the office door one night. Next morning 

his brother found it, and Hked it so well that he printed 

it, never dreaming it was written 

by a boy. Benjamin was so well 

pleased with his success that he 

sent in several other articles in the 

same way. When his brother 

found out who had written the 

pieces he was very angry. This 

brother was a high-tempered man, 

and sometimes he whipped Ben 

severely. \\'hen Benjamin was 

seventeen years old he determined 

to run away. 

Franklin in Philadelphia. — P 
young Franklin got a little money. Then he took passage 
on a sailing vessel to Xew York. There was only one 
printing office in Xew York, and hnding no work for 
him there, he decided to go on to Philadelphia. He 
walked fifty miles across Xew Jersey to a town on the 
Delaware River. Then he got on board a boat to sail 
down to Philadelphia. When he reached the city he 
found he had just one dollar left. He was hungry, and 
the first thing he did was to buy threepence worth of 
bread. The baker handed him three large rolls. As he 
had no valise, and as his pockets were stuffed full of 




FRANKLIN SPRINTING PRESS. 



^v selling some of his books 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 165 

clothes, he put one roll under each arm, and walked up 
the street eating the third. At the door of one of the 
houses a young woman stood and smiled at the queer- 
looking hoy with the rolls under his arms. This same 
young woman afterward became Franklin's wife. 

Franklin Visits England. — The next day Franklin found 
work. His skill as a printer soon attracted notice. The 
governor of Pennsylvania suggested to him that he go 
to London to buy a printing press and type, and offered to 
furnish the money. The governor, however, was a man 
who did not keep his promises. Franklin sailed to Eng- 
land, but the promised letter from the governor never 
came. Reaching London, he had to go to work to earn 
his bread. The London printers were great beer-drinkers. 
As Franklin would drink nothing but water they laughed 
at him and called him *'the water American." They told 
him that water would make him weak, but they found 
him the best swimmer and the strongest man of them all. 

Franklin Starts a Printing Office of His Own Two years 

in England were enough for Franklin. He returned to 
Philadelphia, and soon opened a printing office of his 
own. His newspaper. The Pennsylvania Gazette, was 
said to be the best paper in the country. About this time 
he printed the first copy of Poor Richard's Almanac, 
which he continued to publish every year for twenty-five 
years. This Almanac was sold for live pence, and it 
found its way into almost every house in the colonies. 
IMany of its wise and witty sayings have become proverbs, 
and have taught our people useful lessons. Some of these 
sayings are: ''Honesty is the best policy;" ''Keep your 
eyes open before marriage and half shut afterward;" 



1 66 THE beginner's history of our country. 

''God helps them that help themselves;" ''Early to bed and 
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." 

Some Public Improvements Made by Franklin. — Franklin 
now began to grow rich. But he did not forget the wel- 
fare of others. He induced the people of Philadelphia to 
pave and sweep their muddy streets. He improved the 
smoky street lamps. He started the first public library 
in America. He established the tirst lire company in 




MODERN STEAM PRINTING PRESS. 



Philadelphia, as well as the first insurance company. He 
invented the open "Franklin stove" to take the place of 
the immense fireplaces then common. By means of a 
kite which he flew in a thunderstorm he drew a spark of 
electricity from the clouds, thus proving that lightning 
and electricity are the same. His essays on electricity 
were translated into other languages, and Franklin be- 
came the l^est-known American of his time. 

Franklin's Services to His Country For more than 

forty years Franklin served his country in different public 
offices. He was postmaster of Philadelphia, postmaster- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 167 

general of the colonies, member of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature. In 1765 he was colonial agent in England, 
where he did all he could to prevent the passage of the 
Stamp Act. He was member of the Continental Con- 
gress, and one of the committee to draw^ up the Declara- 
tion of Independence. How he secured the aid of France 
in the Revolution has already been told. On his return 
home from France he was several times chosen governor 
of Pennsylvania. At the close of the Revolution he 
helped make the treaty with England which acknowledged 
our independence and fixed our western boundary at the 
Mississippi River. His last public service was as member 
of the convention which formed the Constitution of the 
United States. He died at the age of eighty-four, in the 
second year of President Washington's administration. 
He was burled in an old chiuxhyard in Philadelphia, and 
it is said more than 20,000 persons attended his funeral. 

Tell how Benjamin Franklin helped the American cause during the Revolution ; about 
the French king's friendship for Franklin; the boyhood of Franklin ; his life in his broth- 
er's printing office ; his journey to Philadelphia ; his first appearance in Philadelphia; his 
visit to England ; his newspaper ; his almanac ; what he did for the welfare of the people ; 
his study of electricity ; his public offices ; his death. Name some traits of Franklin's 
character that boys and girls of our time should copy. 



.68 THE beginner's history of our country. 



CHAPTER XL 

From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 



Daniel Boone, Hunter and Pioneer. 

Work of the Pioneers. — When the Revokitionaiy War 
began the Alleghany Mountains marked the western bor- 
der of the land occupied by the colonists. Of the great 
wilderness beyond the mountains, stretching- westward 
to the ]\Iississippi River, the northwestern part, from the 
Ohio River to the Great Lakes, was claimed by England 
as part of Canada; in the southwestern part the boundary 
separating us from Louisiana and Elorida was unsettled; 
while the entire region was in the possession of Indian 
tribes ready to dispute their own claims against the world. 
About this time, however, settlers from \'irginia and the 
Carolinas began to pour through the mountain passes and 
to dot the fertile Western valleys with their cabin homes. 
While the armies of Washington and Greene and other 
American leaders were fighting our country's battles east 
of the mountains these pioneers of the West were doing 
their part right nobly in the struggle. They kept the 
Indians from crossing the mountains to join the British 
armies in the Carolinas; they drove the savages farther 
westward, opening up the land to white settlement; they 
captured the few British forts in the ^^'est; and some- 
times, leaving their homes, they crossed the mountains 



FROM THE ALLEGH ANTES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 6 



and fought the Hritish armies in the East. Among the 
pioneers who won for ns this Western region, thns dou- 
bUng our country's size, three of the foremost were Daniel 
Boone, George Rogers Clark, and John Sevier. 

Boyhood of Daniel Boone. — Daniel Boone was two years 
younger than George Washington. He was born in 













boone's favorite game. 

Pennsylvania, but when a boy moved with his father's 

family to North Carolina. From the time that he could 

first handle a gun he was fond of hunting. Tall, slender, 

active, and strong, the longest mountain tramp never tired 

his iron muscles. In the rugged country of his boyhood 

home, schools were few, so Daniel spent much of his time 

in the woods with his gun. Bear, deer, panther, squirrel, 

and turkey were the game he usually hunted. On his 

long hunting expeditions he sometimes crossed over to 
12 



I/O THE BEGIXXER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the western slope of the x\lleghanies. Xot long ago 
there was said to be still standing on the bank of a creek 
in what is now eastern Tennessee an old beech tree with 
some carving on the bark probably made by Boone him- 
self. The letters — showing Boone to have been a better 
hunter than speller — read as follows: "D. Boone cilled 
[killed] a bar on [this] tree in the year 1760." 

Boone Visits Kentucky. — Having heard of some fine 
hunting grounds far beyond the mountains, northwest of 
his home, Boone with five companions set out to visit 
the place. They traveled on foot. For five weeks they 
struggled on, climbing mountains and fording rivers. 
At last they came to the beautiful country now known as 
the "blue grass region" of Kentucky. Never before had 
they seen game in such abundance. There were great 
herds of buffalo and deer; bears, wolves, and panthers 
and other animals were plentiful. After a short stay 
Boone's companions returned home, but he himself re- 
mained to spend the winter in the hunting grounds. For 
three long months he was alone in the wilderness, without 
the companionship of even a dog or a horse, and often 
afraid to make a fire lest he should attract the notice of 
the Indians. It was two years after Boone started on this 
great hunting trip before he returned to his North Car- 
olina home. His accounts of what he had seen made the 
Kentucky country famous all along the \^irginia and 
Carolina border. 

The Settlement of Kentucky. — Soon afterward Boone 
led a party of settlers into the Kentucky country. The 
road, or trail, they cut was the first path through the wil- 
derness, and was afterward known as "Boone's Trail." 



FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. I/I 



On the bank of the Kentucky River they built a fort. 

The fort was 

made of logs, 

and inclosed a 

space twice as 

long as broad, 

as shown in the 

picture. At each 

corner was a 




ri.AN OF BOONE S FORT. 



two-Story 1 o g 
house with loop- 
holes to shoot from. For the wall of the fort, stout log 
cabins were arranged in straight lines at short intervals, 
the cabins being joined together by a high fence built of 
log posts sunk into the ground and firmh^ fastened to- 
gether. The fort was entered through heavy wooden 
gates, that were closed with strong bars. In times of 
danger the cattle and horses were driven into the large 
open space within the fort. 

Boone Taken Captive — Boone's fort was several times 
attacked by the Indians. Boone himself was once taken 
captive and was adopted as a son by a powerful chief. 
He was painted, decked with feathers, and dressed as 
an Indian, but all the while he was closely watched by 
his captors. He finally escaped and reached Boones- 
borough, as his fort was called, in time to prepare it for 
an attack which he had heard the savages planning. The 
Indians were beaten off, and Boonesborouo-h was saved. 

Home Life in the West. — Nowadays when a family 
moves from one part of the country to another they pack 
their furniture and bedding in wagons or on a freight car 



172 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

to be carried to their new home. But with Boone 
and the first settlers west of the AUeghany Moun- 
tains the case was far cUfterent. To ride horseback or to 
walk were the only modes of travel possible over the 
rough mountain paths. A few cooking utensils, some salt 
and corn, a few bottles of medicine, and perhaps a little 
coffee were all they could carry with them. So when 
their log cabins in the \\>st had been built they had to 
begin housekeeping with no furniture. The bed w^as 
frequently a heap of soft leaves piled in the corner with 
bearskins for blankets ; a rough table built against the wall 
and a few three-legged stools completed the furniture of 
the first settlers' cabins. For breakfast and supper they 
had journey cake, or "johnnycake," made of corn meal 
and baked in the hot ashes. Along with the johnnycake 
the pioneer boys and girls had sometimes a slice of veni- 
son or bear's meat, or honey from a bee tree, or syrup 
from a maple tree. The men and boys wore suits of 
warm bearskin. Their caps, too, were made of bearskin, 
ornamented sometimes with the tail of a fox for a plume. 
There were log schoolhouses and log meetinghouses, or 
churches. In most of the schools the only books were a 
Testament, a primer, a spelling book, and an arithmetic. 
Hides of animals took the place of money. Two coon 
skins were equal in value to one fox skin or wild-cat 
skin ; two fox skins, to one beaver skin, buckskin, or bear- 
skin. 

The First Western State. — After the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War there was a rush of settlers into the "over- 
mountain" country. "Boone's Trail" became a fairly 
good wagon road, and boat loads of immigrants from the 



FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 73 

East came down the Ohio River. At last Virginia con- 
sented that her "county of Kentucky" should hecome a 
separate State. In 1792 the State of Kentucky took her 
place in the new Union — the first State formed west of 
the Alleghanies, and the fifteenth State in order, Ver- 
mont, the fourteenth State, having been formed from 
New York and New Hampshire the year before. 

Boone Moves Farther West — As Kentucky became more 
thickly settled Boone longed for the lonely life of a hunter 
that he had once enjoyed. So he pushed westward, and 
finally crossed the Mississippi River. His old age was 
spent in the forests of southern Missouri. 

At the beginning of the Revolution who claimed the land between the Alleghany Moun- 
tains and the Mississippi River ? What did settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas do to win 
this region ? Name three of the foremost of these Western pioneers. Tell about the boy- 
hood of Daniel Boone ; about Boone's first visit to Kentucky. What was " Boone's Trail" ? 
Describe Boone's fort. Tell about Boone's capture by the Indians and his escape. How 
did the moving of a family of Kentucky settlers differ from the moving of a family to-day ? 
Tell about the settlers' homes ; their food ; their clothing ; schools and churches ; money. 
Tell about the progress of the Kentucky country after the Revolution ; the last days of 
Daniel Boone. 

General George Rogers Clark. 
A Ball Interrupted — One warm July night in 1778, 
while General Washington was fighting his country's 
battles in the East, a ball was going on in the British fort 
at Kaskaskia, in what is now^ the State of Illinois. Kas- 
kaskia was an old French settlement, and French youths 
and maidens from the village mingled gayly W'ith the 
British soldiers in the fort. Through the grim openings 
in the w'all bright lights now shone out into the darkness, 
and the sound of violin music and of tripping feet was 
wafted upon the summer air. The sentinels, leaving the 
gates unguarded, were looking upon the gay scene or 
taking part in the dance. Suddenly a stranger entered an 



174 'THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



open gate, and made his way unnoticed by the merry 
throng to the great hall where the dancing was going on. 
Here he stopped and with folded arms leaned against a 
doorpost, gazing silently at the dancers whirling past. 
An Indian lying on the floor looked intently in the stran- 
ger's face, then quickly sprang to his feet with an un- 
earthly war whoop that rang out above the sounds of mer- 
riment. Instantly the dancing ceased. Women screamed, 
and men ran toward the door. The strange visitor alone 
showed no excitement. "Go on with your dance/' he 
shouted, "but remember that you are now^ dancing under 
Virginia, and not under England." At the same time his 
followers, stationed outside, rushed into the fort and 
seized the officers. 



Clark and His Bold Plan.- 




MAP OF CLARK S ROUTE. 



-George Rogers Clark was the 
n am e of the 
American officer 
w h o had inter- 
rupted the danc- 
ing ill the British 
fort. He was a 
young Virginian 
who with Boone 
and other pioneers 
h a d m a d e his 
h o m e in the 
"county of Ken- 
tucky." England 
at that time 



claimed all the land between the Ohio River and the Great 
Lakes as part of Canada, and to hold it she had strong 



FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 75 

forts at Detroit (Michigan), Kaskaskia (Illinois), and 
Vincennes (Indiana). Virginia claimed the same region 
because it had been given her by one of her early charters. 
Clark formed the bold plan of raising a small force to sur- 
prise and seize the British forts in the Northwest, thereby 
taking the whole region from the British. Go\'ernor Pat- 
rick Henry, of Virginia, favored the plan, and furnished 
Clark with supplies and permitted him to enlist several 
companies of backwoodsmen. Clark's little army sailed 
down the Ohio nearly to its mouth (see map), then struck 
across the prairie to Kaskaskia. How they surprised and 
took the place has been told. 

The March to Vincennes. — When the people of Vin- 
cennes heard of Clark's victory at Kaskaskia they at once 
surrendered to his messenger who brought the news. 
During the winter, however, a British force from Canada 
occupied the place. Their intention was to go on and 
drive Clark back south of the Ohio. But Clark deter- 
mined to strike first. It was two hundred and forty miles 
from Kaskaskia to Vincennes. jMuch of tlie country was 
overflowed from heavy rains, and was waist-deep in 
water. Nevertheless Clark and a little band of heroes 
started out to surprise their enemies. For days they 
marched through water sometimes up to their shoulders. 
They were in constant danger from the Indians. They 
could get no food on the way, and w^ere so weak from 
hunger that they could scarcely walk. Any other leader 
would have turned back. But Clark cheered on his men, 
plunging in the water ahead of them and sharing every 
hardship. At last Vincennes was reached, and after a 
short struggle the fort was captured. 



176 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

What We Owe to Clark. — The capture of these British 
forts by Clark and his followers gave Virginia possession 
of the Northwest Territory. But for the heroism of 
George Rogers Clark the Ohio River instead of the Great 
Lakes might be to-day the southern boundary of British 
Canada. In later years Virginia gave up to the United 
States her claim to this great Northwest Territory. Out 
of it five splendid States have been carved — Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

Tell about the ball in the British fort at Kaskaskia, and how the dancing was interrupted. 
Where is Kaskaskia ? When did this ball take place ? Tell all you can about the Amer- 
ican officer who interrupted the ball. By whom was the land between the Ohio River and 
the Great Lakes claimed ? Tell about Clark's plan and his journey to Kaskaskia; the 
effect that the news of Clark's success had upon the people of Vincennes ; upon the 
British in Canada. Tell about Clark's march to Vincennes. What do we owe to George 
Rogers Clark ? What changes in this territory afterward took place ? 

John Sevier, the State Builder. 
A Ride Across the Mountains, and What Came of It 

In the spring of 1772, three years before the battle of 
Lexington and one year before Daniel Boone formed his 
first settlement in Kentucky, three horsemen crossed the 
mountains from southwestern Virginia into what is now 
Tennessee. Their purpose was to visit a new settlement 
on the Watauga River, on the western slope of the Alle- 
ghanies. One of the visitors was so pleased with what 
he saw that he decided to leave his comfortable Virginia 
home and join the frontiersmen in their little group of 
cabins on the Watauga. This man, then twenty- six 
years old, was John Sevier, the founder of the State of 
Tennessee. 

The First Government West of the Mountains One day 

not long after his arrival at the Watauga settlement Sev- 



FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 7/ 




CLARK AND HIS MEN IN THE ICY WATER. 



FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 79 

ier saw a big, fierce-looking gambler take a horse away 
from a peaceable stranger, claiming he had won the ani- 
mal in a bet. ''Is there no law here to prevent such 
deeds?" asked Sevier. "No," the frontiersmen replied, 
''but don't be uneasy; that rascal won't stay here long!" 
This did not satisfy Sevier. He got the people to meet 
and choose officers who should make laws, try offenders, 
and punish the guilty. Sevier himself was chosen one of 
the five judges, the youngest of the five. This govern- 
ment lasted several years, and was the first government 
formed west of the Alleghanies. 

Nancy Ward Saves the Settlements. — During the Revolu- 
tion, British agents among the Indians were constantly 
trying to stir up the Western tribes to rise against the 
w^hites and join the British armies near the coast. Early 
in the war these agents sent fifty horse loads of ammuni- 
tion to the Cherokees of southeastern Tennessee. At 
once the Indians began an attack upon the frontier set- 
tlements. But among the Cherokees was a woman, 
Nancy Ward by name, who was honored and feared by 
the red men because they believed she had the gift of 
prophecy. Fortunately, she was a firm friend of the 
whites; often she visited the cabins and played with the 
little children. She overheard the warriors of her people 
planning an attack. Slipping silently through the forest, 
she gave the alarm at a settler's cabin, then hurried back 
to her wigwam. Most- of the white families hastened to 
the nearest forts and were saved. Many other times 
Nancy Ward saved the lives of the settlers. All honor to 
this Indian squaw, "the Pocahontas of Tennessee" ! 

Katherine Sherrill's Foot Race. — Alarm at Nancy 



l80 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Ward's warning soon caused the Watauga fort to be 
crowded with women and children. One morning, while 
some of the women were outside the fort milking the 
cows, a band of Indians burst upon them. The women 
ran for their lives, and all except one got safely inside the 
gate. Katherine Sherrill was a tall, brown-eyed girl, 
straight as an arrow, and graceful as a deer. The In- 
dians were between her and the gate of the fort. John 
Sevier wished to rush out to her rescue, but was held 
back by his friends, who thought he would certainly be 
killed. But Katherine, seeing she was cut off from the 
gate, ran toward the part of the wall nearest her. With 
all her might she jumped, grasped the top of the wall, 
and swung herself up. John Sevier was there to catch 
her in his arms and help her down safe inside the fort. 
Now, John had already begun to court the swift-footed 
Katherine. Not long after her Indian foot race she 
became his wife. Sevier led many expeditions against the 
Indians. He surprised them in their mountain homes 
and beat them in every fight. 

Tennessee Becomes a State. — John Sevier's home was on 
the Nolichucky River. "Chucky Jack" was the name he 
went by among the frontiersmen. He was feared by the 
Indians and loved by the white settlers. When he rode 
through a settlement men, women, and children ran to the 
road to see him and to shake his hand. Every year the 
number of settlements increased, and the Indians were 
driven farther westward. Finally North Carolina agreed 
that her territory west of the mountains should become a 
separate State. So Tennessee came into the Union 
(1796), the second State formed west of the Alleghanies. 



FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI. l8l 

John Sevier was the first governor of the State, and was 
six times chosen to the office. 

Alabama and Mississippi — Following the example of 
Virginia and North Carolina, Georgia gave up to the 
United States her western lands. Out of this territory 
the States of Mississippi (1817) and Alabama (1819) 
were afterward formed. 

Tell about John Sevier's first trip across the mountains ; about the establishment of the 
first government west of the Alleghanies ; about the efforts of the British to stir up the In- 
dians against the settlers of the West ; about Nancy Ward, and how she saved the settle- 
ments ; about Katherine Sherrill's foot race ; John Sevier's love for Katherine. What was 
Sevier's nickname? How did the Indians regard him? the whites? Tell about the for- 
mation of the State of Tennessee. What States were formed from the territory west of 
Georgia? 



1 82 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XIL 

The New Government Started, 

President George Washington. 



A New Constitution Adopted — The "Articles of Con- 
federation/' the form of government of the United 
States which was adopted by the different States during 
the Revolution, proved unsuccessful. Our Congress 
could make laws, but there was no way to compel people 
to obey them. Congress could not tax the people, so there 
was no money to carry on the government unless the dif- 
ferent States chose to grant money for this purpose. 
Seven years' trial of the Articles proved to the people 
that a change must be made. So representatives from the 
different States met in Philadelphia to try to improve the 
Articles. George \\^ashington was made president of 
the meeting. Benjamin Franklin, now an old man, was 
one of the members. After long discussion the present 
Constitution of the United States was agreed upon to 
take the place of the Articles of Confederation. The 
proposed Constitution was then sent out to the different 
States, and was approved by each of them. 

How the New Government Differed from the Old One. — 
The new Constitution provided for a Congress to make 
laws, but this Congress was composed of two bodies, or 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT STARTED. 



183 



''houses," instead of one. One house, called the "Senate," 
is composed of two senators from each State; the other, 
called the "House of Representatives," is composed of 
members chosen according to the population, the most 
populous States having the largest number of representa- 
tives. The Constitution also established a new office, 







WASHINGTON ON HIS WAY TO BE INAUGURATED PRESIDENT. 



that of "President of the United States." It is the duty 
of the President to see that the laws of the United States 
are enforced, and, that he may better do this, he is made 
commander of the army and navy. By the new Consti- 
tution also a Supreme Court of the United States and 
other courts were established to try violations of the laws 
of Congress and certain other cases that do not properly 



184 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

come before the courts of the States. Neither Congress 
nor the President can interfere with State affairs, but 
Congress is given power to lay taxes and to m^ke laws 
on certain subjects which concern the people of all the 
States. 

The New Government Started The Constitution was 

accepted by the required number of States in the year 
1789, and the people at once began to select the officers of 
the new government. For the first President of the 
United States only one name was thought of — that of 
General George Washington. Every vote w^as cast for 
him. As he trarveled on horseback from his Virginia 
home to New York city, which was then the capital of 
the United States, children threw flowers before him 
and the people everywhere along the roadside welcomed 
him with joyful shouts. Standing on the balcony of 
Federal Hall, in New York, while a great crowd filled 
the street in front of him, Washington solemnly promised 
that he would faithfully perform his duties as President, 
and would preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States. Then a. mighty shout, ''Long live 
George Washington, President of the United States!" 
rose from the multitude. 

President Washington. — Washington was fifty-seven 
years old when he became President. Many difficult 
questions had to be settled that required a strong hand 
and a clear head. The people of western Pennsylvania 
refused to pay the tax on whisky levied by Congress. 
The President promptly ordered out troops and forced 
them to submit. The Indians in the Northwest made 
war upon the white settlers. Washington sent three 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT STARTED. 



185 



armies against them and completely subdued them, driv- 
ing them still further westward. The French tried very 
hard to get us to help them in their war against England, 
but Washington steadfastly refused, believing our coun- 
try too young and feeble to enter upon a foreign war. 
In short, Washington, as President, met every difficulty 
wisely and well, just as he had met and overcome diffi- 
culties before when a surveyor in the wilderness of the 
Virginia frontier, when a soldier in the French War, 
and when a general in the Revolution. 

Death of Washington. — When his four years' term of 
office was out the people again chose Washington Pres- 
i d e n t , and they 
wanted to make him 
President a third 
time, but he would not 
permit it. He retired 
to his home, Mount 
Vernon, in Virginia, 
on the bank of the Po- 
tomac, and there bus- 
ied nmiseli managmg mount vernon, the home of Washington. 
his large estate. Two 

years later (1799) he died. The whole country went 
into mourning. Washington has been called the ''father 
of his country," and he is remembered as the great Amer- 
ican who was 'ffirst in war, first in peace, and first in 
the hearts of his fellow-citizens." 

The Capital Chang'ed — Soon after Washington became 
President the capital was moved from New York to Phil- 
adelphia. Ten years later (1800) it was removed to a 

13 




1 86 TPiE beginner's history of our country. 

spot selected by Washington on the north bank of the 
Potomac. Here a city was laid out in the woods, and was 
named Washington, in honor of the father of his country. 
The district in which the new city was to be built w^as 
given to the United States by the States of Maryland 
and Virginia, and in honor of the discoverer of America 
w^as called the District of Columbia. Virginia's part of 
the gift, lying south of the Potomac, was not needed, and 




THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON. 



was afterward returned to her. Washington is now one 
of the most beautiful cities in the world. 

Why so Little Cotton was Raised in Washington's Time. 
— At the time that Washington became President ship- 
loads of tobacco and rice from the. Southern States crossed 
the ocean every year, but all the cotton sent over in a 
year amounted to not more than a dozen bags — hardly 
one bale. If Washington had traveled from Virginia to 
Georgia he would have seen occasional small patches of 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT STARTED. 



187 



cotton, but not a single large field of the plant. It did 
not pay to plant cotton, and there was very little of it 
raised anywhere in the world. The reason of this was 
that in those days the lint had to be picked from the seed 
by hand, and this was slow work. It took one person all 
day to pick out one or two pounds of cotton from the 
seed. Cotton cloth, which now costs ten cents a yard, 
then cost one dollar and a half a yard. 

The Cotton Gin Invented. — The people of Georgia were 
so grateful to General Greene for driving the British 
from the Southern 
States that they gave 
him a farm. Eli Whit- 
ney, a young school- 
teacher from Massa- 
chusetts, while staying 
for a while at the home 
of the Greenes in Geor- 
gia, mended an em- 
broidery frame for 
Mrs. Greene. Mrs. 
Greene was delighted 
with his skill, and when 

some guests at her home some time afterward were speak- 
ing of the difficulty of separating cotton seed from the lint, 
and wishing that some quicker way of doing this work 
could be found, she exclaimed, "Why, gentlemen, just 
ask my young friend, Mr. Whitney; he can do anything!" 
Whitney set his brains to thinking, got some cotton in 
the seed to work upon, and soon had invented a machine 
which we call the "cotton gin" (cotton engine). 




THE FIRST COTTON GIN, 



i88 THE beginner's history of our country. 

What the Cotton Gin Did for the South. — With the cot- 
ton gin one man can clean as much cotton as one hundred 
men could clean with their hands. Cotton at once be- 
came the best-paying crop in the South. Southern 
planters hastened to buy as many slaves as possible to 
work in the cotton fields. Cotton cloth came into general 
use, and mills were built in the Northern States to make 
the Southern cotton into cloth. Ships had to be built 
to carry American cotton to Europe. Instead of a few 
bags of cotton the Southern States now raise every year 
over 10,000,000 bales. In many ways the invention of the 
cotton gin influenced the life of our people and the history 
of our country. 

Why were the Articles of Confederation unsuccessful? How long were they in force? 
Tell about the change to our present Constitution. Mention some of the ways in which 
the new government differed from the old. When did the new Constitution go into effect? 
Tell about the election of the first President; his ride to the capital; his inauguration. 
How old was Washington when he became President ? Mention three difficult subjects he 
had to deal with. How did he meet the difficulties of the President's office ? What shows 
how the people liked his course as President ? Where did he die ? How was the news of 
his death received? What change of capital was made while Washington was President? 
Tell about the selection of a spot for our present capital; its name ; the district in which 
it is situated. In Washington's time what were the great crops of the South ? What can 
you say of the amount of cotton raised then ? Why was this ? Tell about the invention 
of the cotton gin. What were some of the effects of this invention ? 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



189 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Thomas Jefferson. 

About Jefferson's Life. 
Thomas Jefferson Starts on a Journey — You remember 
that near the close of the French War Colonel George 

Washington went with 
his bride to Williams- 
burg to take his seat as 
a member of the House 
of Burgesses of the 
Virginia colony. In 
that same year a Vir- 
ginia boy, who, like 
Washington, after- 
ward became famous in 
his country's history, 
set out from his home 
for the town of Wil- 
liamsburg, to enter the 
College of William and 
Mary. Thomas Jef- 
ferson was the name of 
the youthful seeker 
after knowledge. His home was near the foot of the 
mountains, in what was then the far West of the Vir- 
ginia settlements. It was a long ride to the capital of 
the colony, but our young traveler had a strong, active 
body that was not easily tired. From his earliest boy- 




THUMAS JEFFERSON. 



190 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

hood he had been trained by his father to swim, to shoot, 
to ride, to cHmb. And then the journey was made easy 
by frequent stops at the hospitable homes on the way. 

Jeiferson Spends a Merry Christinas. — Having started on 
his journey in December, the Christmas hohdays found 
young Jefferson a guest at one of the homes on the road. 
Among the other Christmas visitors was a gay, rolHcking 
young fellow named Patrick Henry. Henry had kept a 
country store, but had recently failed in business, and had 
not yet decided what to do next. His failure, however, 
did not make him sad. By his funny stories, his fiddling, 
dancing, and jokes, he kept the young people of the com- 
pany in constant laughter. Jefferson, being himself a 
good violinist, and fond of pleasant company, w^as much 
attracted to the merry fiddler. ( 

Jefferson at College. — The Christmas season over, Jef- 
ferson continued his journey to Williamsburg. He had 
been so diligent in his previous school work that he was 
well advanced in his studies, and entered a high class in 
college. He was now not quite seventeen years old, tall, 
slender, sandy-haired. He studied hard, yet he did not 
neglect regular exercise. Every evening at twilight he 
took a run of a mile. Thus, while improving his mind 
he kept his body strong. He spent many pleasant even- 
ings at the home of the governor, where his skill with the 
violin made the young student a welcome visitor. Two 
years after entering college he graduated. 

Thomas Jefferson's Home. — Like George Washington, 
Thomas Jefferson in early boyhood had to mourn the 
death of his father. Being the eldest son, Thomas then 
assisted his' widowed mother in the management of their 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



191 




MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFERSON. 



large wheat and tobacco plantation. There were no 
pianos or organs in the homes of that time. Yet Thomas 
and his eldest sister had fine voices, and to the accom- 
paniment of the 
brother's violin 
they made their 
home musical 
with the latest 
songs as well as 
with the old fa- 
miliar hymns. 
As a schoolboy 
Jefferson was 
timid, yet fond 
of play. He 
was a hard stu- 
dent, and always ranked among the first in his classes. 
After he grew to manhood the home, ''Shadwell," in 
which he had been born and where he had lived with his 
mother and sisters and little brother, burned to the ground. 
Nearly everything in the house, including Jefferson's 
books and papers, was lost. Thomas was absent at the 
time. The negro boy who brought him the bad news 
added with a joyful grin that his master's fiddle was 
saved. Jefferson then began to build the house which 
was his home until his death, and near which his body is 
buried. He called the new home ''Monticello," or ''Little 
Mountain," from its situation on a beautiful height near 
the town of Charlottesville. 

Jefferson Studies Law and Listens to a Great Speech 

After graduating at William and Mary College, Jefferson 



192 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

returned to Williamsburg to study law. It happened 
about this time that the news of the passage of the Stamp 
Act reached Virginia, and the burgesses at once began 
to discuss the measure. Young Jefferson entered the hall 
and stood near the door to hear what was said. His gay 
fiddle-playing acquaintance, Patrick Henry, who had 
surprised everybody by studying law and becoming a 
successful lawyer, was now a member of the House and 
took part in the debate. Henry's burning words startled 
the assembly. He declared that not the king of England, 
nor Parliament, but the A^irginia burgesses alone, had 
the right to tax Virginians. Then, speaking of the in- 
justice of King George the Third, he cried out, in a 
voice of thunder, "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the 
First his Cromwell, and George the Third — " At this 
point many members, thinking he was going to threaten 
the death of King George the Third, sprang to their feet 
and interrupted his speech with loud shouts of "Treason !" 
"Treason!" But Henry with pale face and flashing eyes 
waited till the uproar had ceased, then finished by say- 
ing, "George the Third may profit by their examples. If 
that be treason," make the most of it !' ' Young Jefferson 
never forgot this scene. He said it seemed to him that 
Patrick Plenry spoke like the grand poet Homer wrote. 
Jefferson in Public Life — Not long after he began the 
practice of law Jefferson himself became one of the Vir- 
ginia burgesses. Then he was sent to Congress. He 
was not a good speaker, but he was a fine writer. He 
favored the Revolution, and was appointed with several 
others to write the Declaration of Independence. The 
other members of the committee asked Jefferson to write 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I93 

it. He did so, and the great Declaration prepared by 
him was signed by the members of Congress on the 4th 
of July, 1776. Jefferson was a great believer in equal 
rights for all citizens. Among the laws of Virginia 
which he succeeded in getting passed was one giving re- 
ligious freedom to all the people. He followed Patrick 
Henry as governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary 
War. After the war Congress sent him to France as 
American minister. When General Washington became 
President he made Jefferson his Secretary of State. He 
was Vice President of the United States under President 
John Adams. In 1800 he was elected President of the 
United States. 

Death of Jefferson — Adams, the second President, and 
Jefferson, the third, both lived to be old men. Strange 
to say, they both died on the same day, and that day the 
4th of July, 1826 — just fifty years from the day on which 
Jefferson's great work, the Declaration of Independence, 
was signed. On his tombstone at Monticello are carved 
the words w^hich before his death he asked to be placed 
there. These words tell three great deeds of his life by 
which he wished to be remembered. Thev read : 



Here was buried 


Ubomas Setferson, 


AUTHOR OF 


THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 


OF THE 


STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 


AND 


FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 



194 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Mention two famous Virginians who went to Williamsburg the same year, near the close 
of the French War. What was the purpose of each ? Tell about Thomas Jefferson's 
journey ; the merry Christmas he spent on the way; his life as a college student. What 
sorrow befell Jeflferson when a boy ? Tell about Jefferson's boyhood ; the burning of his 
home ; the home he afterward built. What did Jefferson do after graduating ? Tell 
about the great speech which he heard. To what diflferent offices was Jefferson chosen ? 
What great paper did he write while in Congress? What law of Virginia did he write ? 
Tell about his death ; the words on his tombstone. 

From the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. 

Why We Wanted the Mouth of the Mississippi.— Who 
should own the land at the mouth of the Mississippi was 
an all-important question to the settlers of the Western 
region won by Clark, Boone, Sevier, and their com- 








FREIGHT WAGON OF JEFFERSON S TIME. 

rades. There were no cities west of the Alleghanies, 
and the only market for American crops was in the At- 
lantic States or in Europe. But railroads had not been 
dreamed of, and there were not even good w^agon roads 
across the mountains; the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers 
then became the great highways of Western commerce. 
Boat loads of wheat, corn, hides, and other produce 
floated down these rivers to New Orleans, and were there 
loaded upon ships to be carried to the markets of the 



^ THOMAS JEFFERSON. I95 

\vorld. When Thomas Jefferson became President, 
France owned not only the land on the west bank of the 
Mississippi, but near the mouth of the stream she owned 
both banks. It would be easy for the guns of her forts 
at New Orleans to stop any ship passing in or out of the 
river, or to make them pay a tax for the privilege of pass- 
ing. The Western farmers were determined that their 
road to market should not be interfered with, so they in- 
sisted that the United States should in some way get 
possession of the land around New Orleans. 

How France Came to Sell — President Jefferson sent one 
of our citizens to France to urge that country to sell us 
New Orleans and the region around the mouth of the 
Mississippi. France at that time was engaged in a 
European war, and needed money. She feared that her 
enemy England would attack Louisiana. She also knew 
that hardy American frontiersmen had already begun to 
cross the Mississippi into her possessions, and with their 
ideas of liberty and independence they might give her 
trouble. So she offered to sell President Jefferson not 
only New Orleans, but her whole Louisiana Territory. 
The price she named, fifteen million dollars, we gladly 
paid (1803). Nowhere was there greater joy over our 
bargain than among the farmers of Tennessee, Kentucky, 
and Ohio. 

The "Louisiana'- We Bought. — The Louisiana which we 
bought was the w^estern half of the Louisiana named by 
La Salle and claimed by him for France a hundred and 
twenty years before. Beginning with the present State 
of Louisiana, it extended northward to the source of the 
Mississippi and northw^estward to the Rocky Mountains. 



ig6 THE beginner's history of our country. 

By buying it President Jefferson more than doubled the 
size of the United States. Nine great States and a large 
part of three others, besides two Territories, have been 
formed from the "Louisiana Purchase," 

Exploring Our New Purchase — Most of the Louisiana 
Purchase had never been visited by a white man, and was 




PATH OF LEWIS AND CLARK THROUGH THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 

as little known to the people of the United States as is 
the north pole to-day. Many strange stories were told 
about this Western country. It -was said that near the 
Rocky Mountains lived a tribe of Indian giants; that in 
the far West w^as a mountain of pure salt a hundred and 
eighty miles long, with brooks of salt water running dow^n 
its sides. President Jefferson determined to find out the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. • I97 

truth about our new possession. He sent out an explor- 
ing party under two captains, Meriwether Lewis and 
Wilham Clark (brother of General George Rogers 
Clark). Their orders were to follow the Mississippi 
River to its source, to cross the Rocky Mountains, and to 
descend the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. 

The Expedition of Lewis and Clark. — The party started 
up the Missouri River in one large boat driven by sails 
and oars and in two smaller rowboats. Their boats 
were loaded with food, such as coffee, sugar, crackers, 
and dried meat, with clothing and tools, and with pres- 
ents of beads, blankets, and knives for the Indians. The 
explorers left St. Louis in the spring. By the end of 
summer they reached the Platte River. Here on a bluff 
they held a council with the Indians, and called the 
place Council BlufTs. Lz^e in the autumn they had 
reached what is now the State of South Dakota. They 
decided to go into camp for the winter. So they landed 
on an island in the river on which there was plenty of 
timber, and began to cut down trees for their winter huts. 
In the spring they started again. At last the current of 
the river became so swift that they could not use their 
boats. An Indian guide was found who led the men, 
tired, foot-sore, and half- starved, across the Rocky Moun- 
tains. Coming to a river, they built new boats and began 
to descend the stream. It brought them to the Columbia. 
Their voyage down this river took several weeks, and it 
was late in autumn when they heard the roar of the waves 
of the Pacific, and felt that their long journey was 
ended. They spent the winter on the Pacific coast, and 
the following spring started on their homeward journey. 



198 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

They reached St. Louis two years and four months after 
they had set out. 

Results of the Work of Lewis and Clark. — The account 
of their journey written by Captains Lewis and Clark was 
eagerly read. People began to realize the great value of 
the Louisiana Purchase. The "Great West" lay now be- 




A GROUP OF WESTERN INDIANS. 

yond the Mississippi instead of beyond the Alleghanies. 
In exploring the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark had 
strengthened our title to the Oregon country beyond the 
mountains. The United States already had a claim to 
Oregon on account of the visit of an American ship to the 
mouth of that river thirteen years before. 

Why was the question of the ownership of the land at the mouth of the Mississippi so im- 
portant to the settlers west of the Alleghanies ? When Jefferson became President who 
owned this land ? What did the Western farmers demand ? What induced France to sell 
us Louisiana ? What was the price paid ? What can you say of the size of the " Louisi- 
ana " President Jefferson bought ? Tell how little was known of our new purchase. 
What exploring party did President Jefferson send out ? What were they directed to do? 
Tell about the expedition. What were some of the results of the work of Lewis and Clark ? 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I99 

We Teach the Pirates of Africa a Lesson. 

How the Pirates Treated Our People The Revolutionary 

War proved how well we could defend ourselves against 
foreign armies on our own soil. About twenty years 
later, while Thomas Jefferson was President, we had a 
chance to show the world that we were ready and able to 
take care of our people and our flag in distant parts of 
the earth. The northern coast of Africa was the home of 
pirates who made a business of capturing the ships of 
other countries. The sailors and passengers of the cap- 
tured ships were thrown into prison or made to work as 
slaves. They were cruelly treated, being poorly fed, and 
for the slightest offense severely punished. Unless their 
friends were able to pay the pirates a large sum for their 
ransom the poor captives had to spend the rest of their 
days in slavery. Every year American ships were cap- 
tured by the pirates and American citizens made captive. 

The United States Decides to Punish the Pirates. — The 
nations of Europe were in the habit of paying the pirates 
in advance every year not to attack their ships. The 
United States did so for a while; then we determined to 
use powder and lead instead of gold to make the pirates 
respect our flag, and stop their outrageous conduct 
toward our ships. President Jefferson sent four ships 
of war to the Mediterranean Sea to protect our merchant 
vessels. Our little fleet captured several pirate ships and 
took a number of prisoners. 

Lieutenant Decatur's Brave Deed One of our war- 
ships, the Philadelphia, while chasing a pirate vessel, 
stuck fast on a rock in the harbor of Tripoli, and had to 



200 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

surrender. The crew of the Philadelphia were thrown 
into prison, and the ship itself was added to the pirate fleet. 
As we could not recapture our ship a bold plan was 
formed to destroy it. Lieutenant Decatur, commanding 
a small vessel he had captured a short time before, sailed 
into the harbor by night, and ran alongside the Phil- 
adelphia before the enemy discovered that his crew were 
Americans. Then his men sprang on board the Phil- 
adelphia, killed or chased overboard the pirate crew, set 
fire to the ship, and sailed away in the light of the flames 
without the loss of a man. 

The Pirates Promise to Respect Our Flag. — After this 
our fleet bombarded the pirate capital, and at the same 
time we sent a force to attack the city by land. The ruler 
of the pirates then begged for peace, and promised to 
make a treaty by which he would let our ships alone with- 
out being paid for it. Thus the young government of 
the United States gave notice to the world that ships 
flying the Stars and Stripes would be protected on what- 
ever waters they sailed. 

Tell about how the pirates of Africa treated our people in President Jefferson's time. 
What were European nations in the habit of doing? What did the United States at last 
decide to do ? What steps did President Jefferson take to protect our ships ? Tell about 
Lieutenant Decatur's brave deed ; the defeat of the pirates. By this war what did we 
. show the world ? 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



20 1 



CHAPTER XIV. - 

Andrew Jackson. 



The War of 1812. The Purchase of Florida. 

Andrew Jackson's Boyhood — When the Revolutionary 

War began Mrs. Jackson, a widow, was Hving with her 

two sons in a log cabin in the backwoods of North 

Carolina. Andrew, the younger of the boys, was at that 

time eight years old. The little 

family was very poor. The boys 

went to school in a log cabin in the 

woods. But as they had tO' work 

hard to help their mother make a 

living, and as their home was in the 

path of the British army, they could 

not stay long at school, so did not 

learn much in their books. Once 

the boys were captured by British 

soldiers, and Andrew was ordered 

by an officer to clean his muddy boots. Andrew refused 

to obey, and the angry officer struck him with a sword, 

leaving a scar that he bore the rest of his life. Both boys 

were thrown into prison, w^here they took the smallpox. 

They recovered from the smallpox, but Andrew's brother 

died soon after he was released from prison. Before the 

war ended Andrew's mother died, leaving him, a boy of 

fourteen, alone in the world. 
14 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



202 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Jackson Moves to Tennessee, and is Elected to Office 

Andrew tried supporting himself by making saddles and 
harness; then by keeping a country store; finally he 
studied law and became a lawyer. He moved to Ten- 
nessee, and though he knew little about law, yet his 




JACKSON REFUSING TO BLACK BRITISH OFFICER'S BOOTS. 

knowledge of human nature and his rough honesty made 
him popular, and he was elected judge. Afterward the 
people of Tennessee elected him to Congress. Jackson 
was a strong-willed man with a high temper that fre- 
quently got him into lights. 

Beginning of Our Second War with England. — \\ hen 
Andrew Jackson was about forty-five years old our coun- 
try had another war with England. This w^ar is often 
called the \A'ar of 1812 because it began in that year. 



ANDREW JACKSON. 2O3 

For some time England and France had been fighting 
each other. In order to injure her enemy, England passed 
law that no American ship should trade with England or 
with any country allied to France. France then made a 
law that no American ship should trade with France or 
with any of her colonies. Both France and England 
claimed the right to seize any of our ships caught violat- 
ing these laws. As England had a far stronger navy 
than France she seized more of our ships than France did, 
and caused us greater loss. Besides this, English officers 
would force their way on board our ships, and if they 
found one of our sailors whom they believed to be an 
Englishman they would take him off with them. Often 
these officers refused to listen to our men. Thousands of 
native-born Americans were thus seized and made to 
serve on English ships. At last we decided to make Eng- 
land stop her insults; in the year 1812 we declared war 
against her. 

Perry's Victory on Lake Erie — ]\Iost of the land battles 
of the war were fought on the Canadian frontier. Our 
armies made several attempts to invade Canada, but they 
met with poor success. Yet we were able to keep the 
British armies from getting very far into our own terri- 
tory. The most important battle in this region was fought 
on Lake Erie. The British fleet on the lake was com- 
manded by an experienced officer who had served in 
European wars. The commander of the American fleet. 
Captain Oliver H. Perry, was a young man who had 
never before been in a naval battle. From the mast of 
Perry's ship floated a blue flag bearing in large white 
letters the words, "Don't give up the ship!" These were 



204 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the last words of the brave American captain, Lawrence, 
who had been killed in a naval battle on the Atlantic a few 
months before. Perry's ship was attacked by two of the 
enemy's vessels, and all on board except himself and a few 
others w^ere killed or wounded. After helping to fire the 
last gun he jumped into a boat, carrying his flag with him, 
and started for another one of his ships which was yet 
unhurt. Showers of cannon balls and musket shot fell 
around his little boat, but it made the passage safely. 
Perry climbed on deck, flung his blue flag to the breeze, 
and in fifteen minutes every British ship had surrendered. 

Jackson's Victory at New Orleans On the Atlantic 

Ocean our seamen won the admiration of the world by 
many glorious victories. On land, however, the British 
were generally successful. Washington city was cap- 
tured, and our Capitol was burned. The British then pre- 
pared to take New Orleans. Fifty ships carrying twelve 
thousand men sailed to attack the city. Andrew Jackson 
was sent to defend this place. A short time before this 
Jackson had won a great victory over the Creek Indians 
of Alabama, and he was now ''General" Jackson. His 
little army at New Orleans was only half as large as that 
of the British. Nevertheless he hastily made a long breast- 
work of earth and cotton bales, and behind this calmly 
awaited the enemy. When the British soldiers came 
within shot of Jackson's Kentucky and Tennessee rifle- 
men there was a sheet of flame from the earthw^orks, and 
the long line of redcoats melted away. Again and again 
they tried to reach our breastworks, but in vain. Their 
defeat was a severe one. The British general and more 
than two thousand of his men were killed. In the Amer- 



ANDREW JACKSON. 




1% 



TERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



207 



ican army there were only eight men killed and thirteen 
wounded. This last batttle of the war was fought in 




'IHL liAllLL Oh M^W ORLl.ANS. 

181 5. The 8th of January (the day of the victory) has 
since been celebrated as a holiday by the people of Louis- 
iana, and Jackson is known as the ''hero of New Orleans." 
The War Ended. — Two weeks before the battle of New 
Orleans both sides signed a treaty of peace in the city of 
Ghent, in Europe; Init we on this side of the water knew 
nothing of it. There were no telegraphs and railroads in 
those days, and steamboats had not yet dared to cross the 
ocean. On the day of the battle a ship bearing the news 
of peace was slowly plowing her way through the waves 
in the middle of the Atlantic, with nothing but the wind 
against her outspread sails to drive her onward. \\ hen 
she at last reached our shores we realized that the battle 



208 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



of New Orleans need never have been fought. We gained 
what we fought for in the war. Though England made 
no promises in the treaty, she has never since tried to seize 
our ships or arrest our seamen. The nations of Europe 
began to respect us as they never had done before. 

Purchase of Florida. — After the Creek Indians of Ala- 
bama were defeated by General Jackson many of them 

fled to Florida 
and joined the 
Seminole tribe 
of that section. 
Led by their 
chief, "Billy 
Bowlegs," these 
Indians made 
raids into Geor- 
gia, driving ofif 
cattle, stealing 
slaves, and mur- 
dering settlers. 
General Jackson was sent against them. "Old Hickory," 
as the people called him, made short work of the Indians. 
He quickly chased them out of Georgia intO' Florida. 
Florida at that time belonged to Spain, and an American 
army had no right to cross her frontier while the two na- 
tions were at peace. But our fiery general followed the In- 
dians far into the Spanish territory and captured the chief 
village of the savages. He seized several Spanish forts, 
and hung two white men and two Indian chiefs for stir- 
ring up the Seminoles. The President of the United 
States, on inquiring into the affair, gave back the forts 




UNITED STATES AFTER THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 



ANDREW JACKSON. 2O9 

to Spain. But Spain now decided that she was wilHng 
to sell a territory which seemed likely to get her into 
trouble with the United States. We were glad to buy; 
so a bargain was made. For five million dollars Spain 
sold us Florida. At the same time we gave up our claim 
to Texas as a part of the Louisiana Purchase, and Spain 
gave up her claim to the Oregon country. 

Jackson President of the United States In 1828 An- 
drew Jackson was elected President of the United States. 
He was the first President whose home was west of the 
Alleghany Mountains. He was the first man, too, who 
had risen from a poor boy to the highest office in our 
country. While he was President there was bitter dis- 
puting among our citizens over some great public ques- 
tions : one, whether there should be a United States 
bank in which to put United States money; another, as 
to how great a tax, or tariff, should be placed on goods 
brought into this country. Jackson, as we might expect 
from his fiery nature, took a leading part in these dis- 
putes. Yet the people thought he made a good President, 
for when his first term expired they elected him a second 
time. At the close of his second term as President he 
went back to his home in Tennessee. He died in 1845, 
an old man of seventy-eight years. 

Tell about the boyhood home of Andrew Jackson ; about the treatment of Andrew and 
his brother by British soldiers. What did Andrew do for a living? Where did he go from 
North Carolina ? How was he liked in his new home ? What sort of disposition did he 
have ? Tell how our second war with England began. Where did most of the land battles 
ot this war take place ? Tell about the battle on Lake Erie, What can you say of the suc- 
cess of the British in the land battles? Tell about the battle of New Orleans. Why was 
the battle of New Orleans unnecessary ? What was the result of the War of 1812 ? Tell 
how Indians from Florida annoj^ed the people of Georgia. Who was sent against these In- 
dians ? What did Jackson do? Tell about our purchase of Florida. To what high office 
was General Jackson finally chosen ? How did he differ from preceding Presidents ? What 
public cjuestions came up while he was President ? When and where did he die ? 



2IO THE BEGIN A^^R S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Three Great Inventions, 



The Steamboat. 
Difficulties of Travel One Hundred Years Ago. — When 
Washington was President, although our country was 
then less than half its present size, as much time was 
required to travel across the United States as it takes to 
go around the world to-day. Travel was so slow, uncom- 




STAGECOACH IN WHICH OUR GRANDFATHERS TRAVELED. 

fortable, and expensive that no one dreamed of traveling 
for pleasure. Most journeys had to be made on horse- 
back, Between the largest towns stagecoaches carrying 
mail and passengers passed two or three times a week. 
The trip from Baltimore to New York cost twenty-one 
dollars and required four days. At the hotels along the 
road the traveler spending the night would probably have 
to share his room with four or five others. W^ater jour- 



THREE GREAT INVENTIONS. 



211 



neys were as slow and uncomfortable as land joiu'neys. 
It took a week for sailing vessels on the Hudson River to 
travel the hundred and fifty miles from New York to 
Albany ; and passengers on the boats had to furnish their 
own 1:)edding and food. When we bought Louisiana 
many persons thought it would be impossible for our 
government to control such a vast territory. They de- 
clared that the United States would soon separate into 
several smaller republics. This result would probably 
have happened had it not been for three great inventions 
that have brought Maine and Texas nearer together than 
Maine and Massachusetts were one hundred years ago. 
These inventions — two of them by Americans — were the 
steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph. 

The First Successful Steamboat — One August day in the 
year 1807 a great crowd had assembled on the bank of 
the Hudson River in the city of New York. A steamboat, 
the first that ever appeared on the Hudson, was to make 
its trial trip. A short time 
before this there had been 
two attempts in different 
parts of the United States 
to make boats that could be 
propelled by steam. But 
neither attempt had been 
successful ; the boats moved 
too slowly, and it cost too 
much to run them. The 

crowd that now lined the banks of the Hudson fully ex- 
pected to see another failure. They made much fun of 
''Fulton's Folly," as they jeeringly called the queer-look- 



fe 







>.'j3t-«^: 



FULTON S STEAMBOAT. 



212 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OP^ OUR COUNTRY. 

ing boat, with its two great paddle wheels at its sides, 
with its tall smokestack, and with its masts and sails 
besides. Directly clouds of smoke mingled with sparks 
began to pour from the smokestack. Then the great 
paddle wheels began to turn, and the boat started off. 
Those who had come to make fun were now silent in 
wonder. Then as the speed increased and showers of 
spra}' were thrown up by the uncovered wheels the little 
crew on the boat caught the sound of cheers from the 
shore. Straight up the river the boat continued, making 
the hundred and fifty miles to Albany in thirty-two 
hours. The return trip was made in thirty hours. "Ful- 
ton's Folly" was now Fulton's Success. 

Robert Fulton, tlie Inventor. — Robert Fulton, the in- 
ventor of the steamboat, was born in Pennsylvania. 
He was ten years old when the Revolutionary War 
began. As a boy at school he was fond of drawing. He 
had great talent for making things. \Mien he wanted 
a pencil he hammered one out of lead; he made his own 
fireworks for the 4th of July. The boat which he and his 
playmates used in fishing was pushed along with poles. 
This was tiresome work, so Robert contrived some pad- 
dle wheels turned by a crank to propel it. AMien he 
was seventeen years old he went to Philadelphia and sup- 
ported himself by painting pictures. He saved enough 
money to go to Europe. Then he gave up his painting, 
for he liked machinery better than pictures. He invented 
a torpedo for blowing up vessel's of war. He also in- 
vented a diving boat, to move under water. 

Fulton's Efforts to Make a Steamboat. — All the time that 
he was working on other things, however, Fulton was 



THREE GREAT INVENTIONS. 213 

trying to plan a boat that could be moved by steam. He 
formed a partnership with Livingston, a wealthy and in- 
fluential New Yorker. In France, Fulton and Living- 
ston built a steamboat on the Seine. Before it could be 
tried its heavy engine broke the boat in two, and the 
vessel sank to the bottom. It was fished up and repaired. 
On trial the boat moved, but so slowly that the spectators 
thought it a failure. Fulton saw how he could improve it, 
and at once set to work planning another boat to make a 
trial trip on the Huds<3n River in his own country. He 
-called this boat the Clcnnont — the name of his friend 
Livingston's home. The successful trip of this boat from 
New York to Albany has been described. 

Improvements in the Steamboat After this the build- 
ing of steamboats went on rapidly. Four years after the 
launching of the Clcnnont the first steamboat appeared 
on the Mississippi. This boat was built at Pittsburg by 
Fulton and Livingston, and went from Pittsburg to New 
Orleans in fourteen days. In 1819 the first voyage across 
the ocean was made by a steamship. In this year the 
Savannah, from Savannah, Georgia, crossed to Liverpool, 
and from there went to St. Petersburg, stopping in Den- 
mark and Sweden. The Swedish king offered one hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the vessel, but his offer was 
refused. Many of the first steamboats had sails to help 
them along. In later years instead of paddle wheels ocean 
steamers are moved by screw propellers which turn under 
the water at the stern of the ship. 

Modern Steamboats. — The largest steamboat in the 
world to-day (1901) is the Oceanic, an ocean steamship 
seven hundred and four feet long, and able to carry 



214 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

twenty-one hundred persons. The speed of modern ocean 
steamers is from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour, 
thoush there are smaller vessels that can move at the 




A MODERN OCEAN STEAMER. 



rate of thirty to forty miles an hour. The passenger 
steamer of to-day has all the comforts and conveniences 
of an elegant hotel, such as spacious dining rooms, par- 
lors, pianos, library, baths, and electric 



lights. 



Why %/as there no traveling for pleasure in Washington's time ? Give some examples of 
the difficulties of travel by land ; by water. What did some people declare would be the 
result of the purchase of Louisiana? Name three inventions that helped to prevent such a 
result. When and where was the first successful steamboat tried? Tell about the trial 
trip of this boat. Who was the inventor ? Tell about his boyhood ; how he first supported 
himself; his first inventions ; his efforts to make a steamboat; the first steamboat on the 
Mississippi ; the first steamboat voyage across the ocean ; improvements in the steamboat. 

The Railroad. 

A Railroad Seventy-five Years A^o. — In a schoolbook 
called Peter Parley's First Book' of History, which your 
great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers studied when 
they were children, is the following interesting informa- 
tion about Baltimore, Md. : 



THREE GREAT INVENTIONS. 



215 



- "But the most curious thing at BaUimore is the raih-oad. 
I must teU you that there is a great trade between Bal- 
timore and the States west of tlie Aheghany Mountains. 
There is therefore a vast deal of traveling back and forth, 
and hundreds of 
teams are con- 
stantly occupied in 
transporting goods 
and produce to and 
from market. 
Now, to carry on 
all this business 
more easily, the 
people are building 
w^hat is called a 
railroad. This consists of 
ground, and made fast, 
wheels may run along 
this way one horse will 




FIRST RAILROAD IN THE UNITED STATES. 



bars laid along- the 



1 ron 
so that carriages with small 
upon them with facility. In 
be able to draw as much as 
ten horses on a common road. A part of this railroad is 
already done, and if you choose to take a ride upon it 
you can do so. You will mount a car something like a 
stage, and then you will be draw^i along by two horses, 
at the rate of twelve miles an hour." This railroad, the 
"Baltimore and Ohio," was opened in 1S30, and con- 
tinued to use horse power until the road was finished to 
the tow^n of Frederick, sixty-one miles distant, in 1832. 
The First Locomotive. — \\niile Robert Fulton was plan- 
ning his first steamboat English inventors were working 
on the problem of how to make a steam wagon. During 
our w'ar of 181 2 George Stephenson, an English coal dig- 



2l6 THE BEGINNER^S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ger, invented the first successful steam locomotive. Fif- 
teen years later, or about the time the Baltimore and 
Ohio horse-power railroad was opened, locomotives began 
to be tried in the United States. The first engines were 
no larger than a hand car of the present day, and had a 
boiler about the size of a flour barrel. The first passenger 
trains, as the picture shows, looked quite different from 
those with which we are familiar. 




ONE OF THE FIRST PASSENGER TRAINS. 

Discomforts of Railroad Travel — Travel on these trains 
could not have been very pleasant. As rich pine wood 
was used for fuel there were clouds of black smoke and 
showers of burning cinders. Nor did the engines then 
have any contrivance to catch the sparks. Consequently 
the passengers were kept busy dodging cinders and put- 
ting out the fire in their clothes; at the end of a journey 
they looked as though they had spent a day in a black- 
smith shop. There were no sleeping cars. At night the 
coaches, with their hard, straight-backed seats, were 
dimly lighted with tallow candles. One of the first rail- 
road accidents happened in South Carolina. The fire- 
man on the engine was a negro. In the absence of the 
engineer he determind to stop the noisy hissing sound 
made by the steam escaping from the safety valve; so he 



THREE GREAT INVENTIONS. 21/ 

fastened down the valve, and, to hold it more firmly, sat 
on it himself. You can guess what happened. For 
some time after this passengers refused to ride on this 
road unless there was a freight car loaded high with cot- 
ton bales between them and the engine. 

Railroads To-Day — Railroads now cross our country in 
every direction, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from 
Canada to Mexico. They have built up our great West, 
bringing in settlers and carrying Western products to 
Eastern markets. They have brought all parts of our 
country nearer together, causing the different sections to 
know and understand each other better. In Washing- 
ton's time the traveler was carried by his horse probably 
forty miles in a day. iie had to stop at the farmhouses 
or hotels on the road to get his meals and to spend the 
nights. To-day the traveler speeds along in a passenger 
train at the rate of fifty miles an hour. While his train 
is whirling onward through tunnels and over bridges he 
may eat his meals in an elegant dining car; then a draw- 
ing-room car offers him the comforts of parlor and 
library; and at night he may retire to a comfortable bed in 
a sleeping car. 

Tell about the railroad described in Peter Parley's history. When and by whom was the 
first successful steam locomotive invented ? Describe the first locomotive and passenger 
cars. Mention some of the discomforts of railroad travel. Tell about the railroad accident 
in South Carolina ; modern railroads. 

The Telegraph. 

Samuel Morse, Inventor of the Telegraph About the 

time that railroads came into use in the United States 

another invention that helped to make our country great 

was made. This was the electric telegraph. Samuel 

Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, was a Massachu- 
15 




2l8 THE r.EGTNNER's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

setts boy, the son of a minister. Like Robert Fulton, 
young Morse was fond of draw- 
"'^'^- ing. One of the first whippings 

he ever got was for scratching 
with a pin a picture of his teacher 
on his mother's bureau. When 
his school days were over his 
father sent him to Europe to 
study painting. His father being 
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. P^^)!'. Sauiuel was often in sore 

need of money. He wrote home 
from Europe : ''I have had no new clothes for nearly a 
year. My shoes are out at the toes. My stockings all 
want to see my mother, and my hat is gray with age." 
Nevertheless he studied hard, and painted some pictures 
that made him so famous that he was elected professor of 
art in the University of New York. While on the retm-n 
voyage to America, in 1832, the conversation of some 
passengers on the ship turned Morse's thoughts to elec- 
tricity. Before he had reached New York he had made a 
drawing of a telegraph instrument, and had devised an 
alphabet of signs. ''Well, captain," he said to the captain 
of the ship wdien he reached land, "should you ever hear 
of the telegraph, remember that the discovery w^as made 
on the good ship Snlly/^ 

Morse's Difficulties. — As there was no telegraph wire 
in those days Morse bought a quantity of wure used 
in making ladies' bonnets, and with this ware and the in- 
strument he had made he was able to send messages a short 
distance. At this time he supported himself by teaching, 
and as he had only three pupils he was frequently hard 



THREE GREAT INVENTIONS. 219 

pressed for something to eat. A rich mill owner, whose 
son became interested in Professor Morse's experiments, 
furnished the means to make the first perfect instrument. 
To build the first telegraph line required more money than 
any rich men of that day were willing to risk, so it was 
decided to ask Congress to build the line. A bill was in- 
troduced appropriating thirty thousand dollars to con- 
struct a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, 
forty miles. vSome of the members of Congress made 
fun of the proposed telegraph, and Morse gave up all 
hope of getting the money. 

The First Telegraph Line.-^— In the midst of his discour- 
agement a young lady brought Morse the news that Con- 
gress had passed his telegraph bill just five minutes be- 
fore adjournment. He was so rejoiced that he promised 
her that she should send the first message. In the spring 
of 1 84 1 the line was completed. A passage from the 
Bible, ''What hath God wrought!" (Num. xxiii, 23) was 
the first message sent. The first news sent over the wire 
was that the convention of Democrats which met in Balti- 
more nominated James K. Polk for President. For Vice- 
President they nominated Silas Wright, who w^as then in 
Washington, and they notified him by telegraph. He 
sent four separate telegrams declining the nomination, 
but the conventon refused to believe them, and finally sent 
a committee to Washington "to get reliable information 
on the subject." 

The Atlantic Cable. — Before the first telegraph line had 
been built Morse had constructed a line beneath the water 
in New York harbor. The wire was wound with thread 
soaked in pitch, and was then inclosed with rubber. 



220 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

About 1850 Cyrus Field, a wealthy New Yorker, con- 
cluded that a telegraph could be laid across the Atlantic 
Ocean, and he set to work to carry out his idea. It was 
sixteen years later before a cable that worked success- 
fully was laid. This cable is over two thousand miles 
long. Since then many other cables have been laid. By 
means of the cable and the telegraph our daily newspaper 
is enabled to tell us each morning what happened in all 
parts of the world the day before. 

Who invented the telegraph ? Tell about the boyhood of Morse; his life in Europe ; 
the beginning of his idea of the telegraph ; the first telegraph wire ; his poverty. Who 
helped him make a perfect instrument ? Tell about the help he got from Congress ; the 
first message; the first news; the lefusal to believe a telegraph message. Tell about 
the first telegraph line under water ; the laying of the Atlantic cable. 



SAM HOUSTON. 



221 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Sam Houston. 



Early Life of Houston. 

We Give Up Our First Claim to Texas. — When we bought 
Louisiana from France, in 1803, we did not know exactly 
how far westward 
our new territory 
extended. Li the 
southwest we 
claimed that it in- 
cluded the greater 
part, if not all, of 
Texas. But Spain 
declared that Texas 
was part of her prov- 
ince of Mexico, and 
that our Louisiana 
did not reach even as 
far west as the Sabine River. Sixteen years later (in 
1819) this matter was settled. In that year w^e bought 
Florida from Spain, and as part of the bargain we agreed 
to take the Sabine River as our western boundary, thus 
giving up our claim to Texas. About this time Mexico 
declared herself independent of Spain. Li the war be- 
tween Spain and Mexico that followed Mexico won ; and 
Texas now, instead of belonging to Spain, belonged to 
Mexico. 



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I^K'^kI^^^^h 


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SAM HOUSTON. 



222 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Settlers from the United States in Texas But the Sa- 
bine River was easier for our westward-marching pioneers 
to cross than the Alleghany Mountains had been for their 
fathers in the days of Daniel Boone. Before long set- 
tlers from the United States began to throng into the 
fertile plains of Texas. The Mexican government at 
first encouraged the coming of the settlers, making rich 
grants of lands to the pioneers who came. The new- 
comers, how^ever, were different in language, customs, 
and religion from the Mexicans. They loved liberty, 
and the government of Mexico was harsh and tyrannical. 
There were mutterings of discontent — signs of an ap- 
proaching storm. 

Sam Houston's First Appearance in Texas. — In Decem- 
ber, 1832, three horsemen from the United States crossed 
the Red River from the Indian Territory (then a part of 
Arkansas Territory) into the Mexican State of Texas. 
Traveling southward, they reached the village of Nacog- 
doches, an American settlement in eastern Texas. Here 
the leader of the little party was recognized and wel- 
comed by some acquaintances among the settlers as Sam 
Houston, famous as an Indian fighter, then as Congress- 
man, afterward as governor of Tennessee. Houston told 
his Texas friends that he was on his way to San Antonio, 
by order of President Jackson, to make a treaty wdth the 
Comanche Indians. The people of Nacogdoches felt that 
they needed such a man as Houston to help them in their 
disputes with Mexico. They begged him to make his 
home among them. He promised that he would do so 
after he had carried out President Jackson's order. 

Schoolboy Days of Houston. — Sam Houston, who w^as 



SAM HOUSTON. 223 

soon to be the leading man in Texas, was born in the A'al- 
ley of Virginia. He started to school when he was eight 
years old, but as he had to help with the farm work he 
could attend school only a few months in the winter. 
After his farm work began, if he did his work well, he was 
allowed to run from the fields to the schoolhouse in time to 
keep his place in spelling. When Sam was thirteen years 
old his father died, and his mother with her nine children 
moved to Tennessee. In his new home Sam went for a 
while to another school. Here, it seems, he was fonder 
of play than of his books. His teacher said, "Many a time 
did I determine to give Sam Houston a whipping for 
neglect of study, but he would come into the schoolroom 
bowing and scraping, with such a fine dish of apologies, 
and withal so polite and manly for one of his age, that it 
took all the whip out of me." Young Sam got hold of a 
book of Greek poetry translated into English, and took 
great delight in reading it. He then wanted to study 
Latin, and when his teacher refused to allow him to do 
so he declared he would never recite another lesson. 

Life among' the Indians. A School-teacher. — His older 
brother put Sam to work clerking in a store. He did not 
like this indoor work. Just beyond the Tennessee River, 
a few miles from his home, was an Indian tribe. Sam 
was on friendly terms with the red men. He often hunted 
with the Indian boys, and sold them ammunition from the 
store. One day the storekeeper missed his clerk. It 
turned out that Sam had run away to live with the In- 
dians. He made his home with them for several years, 
dressed like an Indian, spoke their language, and fol- 
lowed their customs. Then, needing money to pay a 



224 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

debt for ammunition, he came back to the white people 
and opened a school. Reading, writing, and "cipher- 
ing" were the only branches taught in most frontier 
schools. Sam knew these branches pretty well, and he 
controlled the boys easily; so his school was a success. 
He raised the price of tuition from six dollars a year to 
eight dollars, payable one third in cash, one third in 
corn, and one third in cotton cloth. Having made enough 
money to pay his debt, he stopped teaching and started 
to school again himself. 

Houston becomes a Soldier; a Lawyer; Governor. Among 
the Indians Again. — When our second war with England 
began Houston, now twenty years old, joined the army. 
He was sent with the troops under General Jackson 
against the Indians of Alabama. In the battle of Horse- 
shoe Bend he was wounded so severely that it was several 
years after the close of the war before he recovered his 
health. Then, resigning from the army, he studied law. 
He was elected to one office after another until he became 
governor of Tennessee. While governor he suddenly 
gave up his office and left his people. He crossed the Mis- 
sissippi River into the Territory of x\rkansas and took 
up his abode with his old friends, the Indians. Again he 
put on the clothing of an Indian and lived in a wigwam. 
He was known by the Indian name of Colonneh, the 
Rover. While here he was requested by President Jack- 
son to visit Texas, as already told. 

When and how did the United States first get a claim to Texas ? What nation disputed 
our claim ? How was the dispute settled ? What was the result of Mexico's war for inde- 
pendence ? Tell about the coming of settlers from the United States. Mention some 
causes of discontent. Tell about Sam Houston's first appearance in Texas ; about Hous- 
ton's schoolboy days; his running away from home; his experience as a teacher; as a 
soldier against the Indians ; as a public officer ; his second retirement to the Indians. 



SAM HOUSTON. 



225 



Texas and the Pacific Slope. 

The Texas Revolution — Houston now made his home 
at Nacogdoches, in Texas. Soon the Texans were in 
arms against the tyrannical Mexican government. Hous- 
ton was made commander of the Texas army. At the 
Alamo, a stone church used also as a fort, situated in San 
Antonio, a small company of Texans under Colonel 




THE ALAMO. 



Travis was attacked by a large army of Mexicans. The 
fort was taken, but not until every one of its brave de- 
fenders had fallen. Near the town of Goliad a little 
army of Texans was compelled to surrender to a large 
Mexican force. Instead of carrying out their promise 
to send the captured Texans back to their homes, the 
cruel Mexicans marched them out in front of the camp, 
stood them up in rows, and shot them to death. On 
the 2 1 St of April, 1836, General Houston's army met the 
Mexicans on the bank of the San Jacinto River, a few 
miles below the present city of Houston. The Texans 



226 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

were outnumbered two to one, but they rushed into 
battle shouting, "Remember the Alamo!" "Remember 
Goliad !" and drove their enemies before them. The 
Mexican general was captured, and a great victory was 
won. This severe defeat of the Mexicans ended the war. 
Texas became an independent republic, with General 
Houston its president. 

Texas Joins the United States. — The settlers of Texas 
had all come from the States, and they now wanted their 
new country to join the United States. At first the 
United States refused the request of the Texans for an- 
nexation. Mexico still claimed that Texas belonged to 
her, and threatened to make war on any nation that should 
seize or accept it. The United States tried to buy Texas 
as she had bought Louisiana, but Mexico would not sell. 
At last, the people of the United States showed by their 
votes that they wanted Texas if she still wished to join 
them. In December, 1845, Texas became a State of the 
United States. This was the first new territory which 
we acquired without buying it. Texas is the largest 
State in the Union. It is nearly as large as the first thir- 
teen States east of the Alleghany Mountains taken to- 
gether. 

War between the United States and Mexico. "We Gain 
More Territory — Mexico still claimed that Texas belonged 
to her. A\dien Texas joined the United States war broke 
out between Alexico and the United States ( 1846). The 
war lasted two years. Generals Zachary Taylor and Win- 
field Scott were the leading generals on our side. Our 
troops won every 1:)attle. We conquered northern Mex- 
ico, including what is now California, and captured the 



SAM. HOUSTON. 




GENERAL HOUSTON S ViriORY Af SAN JACINl' 



SAM HOUSTON. 229 

city of Mexico. Mexico was then glad to make peace, 
and to let ns have the northern territory our troops had 
conquered, on our paying fifteen million dollars for it. 
This new land included the present States and Territories 
of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona (with small parts 
of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico). Our country 
now extended from ocean to ocean. 

Gold in California — About the time we got the Cal- 
ifornia country a workman who had been building a saw- 
mill on a river bank in northern California noticed in the 
water some shining yellow particles. He took a panful 
of the sparkling dirt to the owner of the mill. The two 
men examined it carefully, weighed it, pounded it, poured 
acids upon it, and at last decided it was gold. They tried 
to keep the discovery a secret, but the news leaked out. 
Rich discoveries of gold were made in various parts of 
the country. People began pouring into California from 
all parts of the United States. On horseback, in wagons, 
on foot, a long procession of immigrants streamed across 
the Western plains, all wild with the ''gold fever." In 
two years after gold was discovered California had 
enough people to be admitted as a State. 

California is now noted not only as a gold-producing 
State, but as a rich fruit and farming country. The 
famous "big trees" of California are the largest in the 
world. 

More Territory — The land west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains and north of California was known as the ''Oregon 
country." It was claimed by the United States, because 
it had been visited by Captain Robert Gray in his ship 
Colunihia in 1793, and because Lewis and Clark had 



?30 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




SAM IIOUSTOX. 



231 



explored it in 1804. Spain once claimed this region, but 
she gave up her claim to us when she sold us Florida. 
England claimed the Oregon country as part of British 




bio iKLLa oF CALIFORNIA. 



America, and she insisted on her claim. In the year that 
the ^lexican war began, however, we agreed with Eng- 
land to divide the disputed territory between us, the 



232 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

United States taking the part south of the present bound- 
ary of British America. General Houston was at this 
time a member of the United States senate which helped 
to make the treaty, or agreement, with England. A few 
years later we bought from Mexico another strip of land, 
now the southern part of Arizona and New Mexico. We 
called this new territory the "Gadsden Purchase," from 
General Gadsden, who was our agent in buying it. This 
made the sixth time we had added to our territory. 

Last Days of Greneral Houston — When Texas joined the 
United States, General Houston was chosen United States 
senator. He was governor of Texas when the war broke 
out between the North and the South. Houston believed 
that Texas made a mistake in leaving the Union to join 
the Southern Confederacy, and he refused to support the 
new government. The Texans then removed him from 
his office. He took no part in the war, however, and 
allowed his son to join the Confederate army. He died 
at his home in Huntsville before the war was over. 

To what office was Houston first called by the Texans ? Tell about the fall of the Ala- 
mo ; the cruelty of the Mexicans at Goliad ; Houston's victory at San Jacinto ; the efforts 
of Texas to join the United States. When did Texas become a State of the Union ? What 
can you say of its size ? What caused the war between the United States and Mexico? 
Who were our leading generals? What was the result of all the battles ? the result of the 
war? What States are included in this " Mexican cession " ? Tell about the discovery of 
gold in California ; the growth of California in population ; the productions of the State. 
Tell about how the United States acquired the Oregon country. What Stales are in- 
cluded in this region ? What other territory did we get from Mexico? Name the six dif- 
ferent additions to our territory thus far. Tell about the last days of General Houston. 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 



233 



I 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Story of Two Kentucky Boys. 

Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. 
Two Kentucky Boys. — A few years before the beginning 
of the War of 18 12 two boys were born in the State of 
Kentucky who were destined when they were each about 




MAP SHOWING BIRTHPLACES AND HOMES OF LINCOLN AND DAVIS. 

fifty years of age to be leaders of opposing sides in a great 

war between the Northern and the Southern States. Less 

than a hundred miles separated the birthplaces of these 

boys, and there was only eight months' difference in their 

ages. The father of the older of the boys had moved to 

Kentucky from Georgia, where he had been a soldier in 

the War of the Revolution. The grandfather of the 
16 



234 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

younger boy had come from Virginia to make his home 
in Kentucky a few years after Daniel Boone had led the 
way into this region. The name of the older boy was 
Jefferson Davis; of the younger, Abraham Lincoln. 

EARLY LIFE OF LINCOLN. 

Boyhood of Lincoln — When Abraham Lincoln was 
seven years old his father removed from Kentucky to 
Indiana. He selected a place in the woods for a home, 
and with the help of little .Vbe and his older sister Sarah 
and Mrs. Lincoln a shelter was quickly built. This shel- 
ter was called a "half- face camp." It was a kind of shed 
made of poles and covered with leaves and branches. 
One side was left entirely open, and in front of this open- 
ing a fire was kept burning to warm the camp. Over the 
fire hung a huge iron kettle, and in this kettle Abe's 
mother cooked the wild game, beans, corn, or other food. 
In this uncomfortable home the Lincoln family lived a 
whole year. When they moved into their new log cabin 
it seemed to little Abe like a palace, although it had a 
dirt floor and no doors or windows, save openings in the 
walls over which skins of wild animals were hung. Abe 
slept on a pile of leaves in the loft of the cabin, and every 
night he climbed to his bed by a ladder of wooden pins 
driven into the logs. 

Lincoln's School Days — Abraham Lincoln's mother 
taught her husl^and to read and write, and she probably 
taught little Abe also. He went to school in a log cabin 
near his home. But his school days were soon over. His 
father took him from school to put him to work, but he 
continued studying. He had no slate, and writing paper 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 



235 



was scarce. So he used to write compositions and work 
"sums" in aritlimetic at night on the wooden shovel by 
the fireplace. When he had covered the shovel with let- 
ters and figures he siiaved them off and began again. At 
nineteen years of age he had read every book he could 
find, could ''spell down" the wdiole neighborhood in their 
spelling matches, and could write a neat, clear hand. 




LL\COLN S EARLY HOME. 



A Trip to New Orleans. — Young Lincoln longed to 
see something of the world beyond his father's little farm. 
The chance came when a rich neighbor offered to hire 
him to accom])any his son on a flatboat loaded with 
corn and other products to New Orleans. To the Western 
farmers of tliat time boats on the Ohio and Mississippi 
took the place of freight trains with us. It was a long 
trip, of about eighteen hundred miles, to New Orleans. 
Youne: Lmcoln managed the boat successfully and sold 
the cargo for a good price. One night, on the way down, 



2-^^^ THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

when they had tied their boat to the shore, and the two 
young men were asleep on board, the}' were awakened 
by a gang of negroes coming to rob the boat. Abraham 
seized a chib, knocked several negroes overboard, drove 
the rest from the boat, and, with his companion, chased 
them some distance in the darkness. 

Moves to Illinois. Rail Splitter; Soldier When young 

Lincoln was twenty years old his father moved to Illinois. 
Here another cabin home was built. Abraham, with the 
help of his cousin, John Hanks, split enough walnut rails 
for his father to fence in a field of fifteen acres. Once, 
when he needed a pair of trousers, he agreed with a lady 
who was to make them to split for her four hundred good 
fence rails for every yard of cloth she furnished. When 
war against the Indian chief Black Hawk broke out Lin- 
coln joined the army and was made captain of a com- 
pany. Black Hawk was captured, and the war was 
closed before Lincoln's men had a chance to do any fight- 
ing. In a speech afterward he jokingly said that in the 
Black Hawk War he fought, bled, and came away — that 
he charged upon the wild onions, and had a good many 
bloody struggles with the mosquitoes. 

Lincoln Studies Law. Elected to the Legislature and to 
Congress. — After his war experience was over Lincoln 
studied law. About the time he began to practice he was 
elected to the Legislature of Illinois. As he was then too 
poor to hire a horse he walked all the way from his home 
to the State capital, over a hundred miles. He was elected 
again and again to the Legislature. Then his people sent 
him to Congress. When Lincoln took his seat in the 
House of Representatives, or "Lower House" of Con- 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 237 

gress, in December, 1847, among the new members of 
the Senate, or "Upper House," was Jefferson Davis, of 
Mississippi, the Kentucky boy mentioned in the beginning 
of tliis chapter. 

What State was the birthplace of two opposing leaders in the war between the North and 
the South? In what respects was the early history of these boys similar? What were 
their names ? Tell about the boyhood of Lincoln , about his school days ; his trip to New 
Orleans ; his new home in Illinois ; his experience as a rail splitter ; as a soldier ; his pub- 
lic offices. What former Kentuckian did he meet in Congress ? 

EARLY LIFE OF DAVIS. 

Boyhood of Jefferson Davis. — Abraham Lincohi's fa- 
ther moved northward from Kentucky; Jefferson Davis's 
father moved southward. Before Jefferson was old 
enough to remember, his father took his familv from 
Kentucky and settled in ^Mississippi. Here little Jeff, 
when onlv five vears old, started to school. He and his 



5etfersou H)av>i5, 

OF MISSISSIPPI, WAS BORN JUNE 3, I808, 

ON THE SITE OF THIS CHURCH. 

HE MADE A GIFT OF THIS LOT MARCH lO, 1886, 

TO P.ETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, 

AS A THANK-OFFERING TO THE LORD. 



INSCRIPTION ON MARBLE SLAB IN WALL OF THE BAPTIST 
CHURCH, FAIRVIEW, KENTUCKY. 

sister Polly used to walk through the woods to the log- 
cabin in which the school was taught, carrying their 
''dinner" in a basket. Jefferson was two years younger 
than his sister, Ixit he thought he had to take care of her. 
One day when they were going through the loneliest 
part of the woods they saw coming toward them through 



238 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the iinclergrowth what seemed to l)e a drunken man car- 
rying several chairs on his head. Jefferson seized his sis- 
ter's hand and said, "We mustn't run, PoUy !" Slowly 
the strange object drew near, until it proved to be a wdld 
deer, with great branching horns. Gazing at the two chil- 
dren bravely standing hand in hand, the deer came quite 
close to them, then turned and bounded off. 

Jefferson Decides between Going to School and Picking 
Cotton — After two years at a boarding school in Ken- 
tucky, Jefferson returned to his home in Mississippi, and 
entered the county academy. One day when his teacher 
threatened to punish him for not knowing a lesson which 
Jefferson declared was longer than he could master the 
boy took up his books and went home. His father after 
listening to his story said : "It is for you to choose 
whether you will work with your head or with your 
hands; of course, my son could not be an idler. I want 
more cotton pickers, and I will give you work." For 
two days Jefferson worked steadily in the cotton field 
from morning until night beside his father's negro slaves. 
Then he decided that long lessons were not so bad as 
long cotton rows, when the cotton had to be picked by a 
boy unused to steady work in the hot sun. The next day 
he was back at his place in school with no more complaint 
abcHit long lessons. 

A Cadet at the Military Academy. — WHiile Jefferson 
Davis was at college he was appointed by President Alon- 
roe a cadet in the military academy at West Point, New 
York. A schoolmate at college has said of him that, 
while gay and light-hearted, Davis was free from coarse- 
ness and vulgarity; that ^'he was alwavs a gentleman in 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 



^39 



the highest sense of the word." The cadets at West Point 
are trained to he soldiers. They are supported l)y the 
government, and a sum of money is paid them each 
month for their expenses. Every month Cadet Davis sent 
a part of his pay to his mother. Once or twice she re- 
turned it, hut finding that this distressed him, she kept it. 




JEFFERSON DAVIS S HOME, BEAUVOIR, MISS. 

A Soldier — After graduating from West Point, Lieu- 
tenant Davis was stationed with other soldiers at first 
one fort and then another in the Northwest. He was 
engaged in the Black Hawk Indian War, and it is said 
that he was the officer hefore ^^"hom Captain Abraham 
Lincoln was sworn into service in that war. After his 
marriage he resigned from the army and lived on a plan- 
tation in ]\Iississippi. Li 1844 he was elected to the 



240 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Lower House of Congress. When the Mexican War 
broke out a regiment of volunteer soldiers from Mis- 
sissippi chose Mr. Davis as their commander. In the 
battle of Buena Vista the skill and bravery of Colonel 
Davis and his men won the victory for our army. Davis 
was severely wounded in this battle. 

United States Senator. — On his return from the Mex- 
ican War, Colonel Davis was made United States senator. 
In the same Congress in which he took his seat as sen- 
ator from Mississippi, Abraham Lincoln first appeared as 
representative from Illinois. Thus the two Kentucky boys, 
having grown to manhood with lives so widely different, 
have at last come together as lawmakers for their coun- 
try. One boy, blessed with a comfortable home and ev- 
ery advantage of education, made the most of his oppor- 
tunities. The other boy, raised in poverty and with 
almost no school advantages, conquered every difficulty, 
made opportunities, then improved them. Both were 
high-minded, truthful, generous, brave — worthy exam- 
ples to all American boys. 

Tell about Jefferson Davis's removal from Kentucky ; about the adventure of little 
Jefferson while on his way to school ; about his cotton-picking experience. What was said 
of him as a college student ? What is the United States INIilitary Academy? How did 
Davis become a cadet ? How did he show his love for his mother? In what Indian war 
did he serve ? After his marriage where did he make his home ? What part did he take 
in the Mexican War ? On his return from the Mexican War to what office was Colonel 
Davis chosen ? Compare the lives of the two Kentucky boys. 

FORMATION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 

Different Political Beliefs of Lincoln and Davis. — Al- 
though Lincoln and Davis we're members of the same 
Congress, they belonged to different political parties — 
that is, they had different beliefs about the powers of 
the government, and how these powers should be exer- 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 



241 



cised. Lincoln's party was composed of men who, for 
the most part, beUeved that the Constitution of the 
United States gave the President, Congress, and other 
United States officers power to do certain things which 
the party of Jefferson Davis beheved could be done only 
by the officers of the dift'erent States. Lincoln's party 
believed that in cases where the meaning of the Consti- 
tution was not perfectly plain more power should be 
given to the United States, or central government, and 
less power to the State. Davis's party believed that the 
State governments should 
have more power and the cen- 
tral government less. These 
different beliefs led to many 
disputes. 

The Slavery Question. — An- 
other question which divided 
Jefferson Davis and the people 
of the South from Lincoln 
and the people of the North 
was that of slavery. Slaves 
were brought to this country 
by New England ships and 
were once owned in all the 
States. But it was found that the cold climate of the 
Northern States and the trading and manufacturing occu- 
pations of the people were not suited to the negro. In 
the North it was cheaper to hire a white workman than to 
feed and clothe the negro slave and care for him in sick- 
ness, when, after all, he could not be trained to do skill- 
fully the work which the Northern people wanted done. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



242 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



In the South, on the other hand, negro slaves were profit- 
able to their masters. The warm climate of the South 
was like that of the negro's African home. Under the 
direction of a good "overseer" negroes made splendid 
farm hands on Southern plantations. So it came about 
that the Southern people considered slavery the best thing 
for the negro, for the South, and for the whole country. 
Many Northern people, on the other hand, came to look 
upon it as a great wrong, a shame and a disgrace to th^ 
whole country. When a new State was ready to join the 
Union there was nearly always a hot dispute between 
North and South as to whether it should come in as a 
''free" or a ''slave" State. 

The Abolitionists. — The North began to form socie- 
ties called "abolition societies," for the purpose of abol- 
ishing slavery in the Southern States. Members of these 

societies made speeches, pub- 
lished papers, and wrote poems 
declaring slavery to be a sin, 
and Southern slave owners to 
be cruel and wicked. The 
Southern people declared that 
cruel slave owners were few; 
that the slaves w^re well cared 
for, happy, and contented. 
They pointed to passages in 
the Constitution of the United 
States permitting slavery, and 
they insisted that Congress had 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. . , . . • 1 •, 

no right to mterfere with it. 
The more bitter the Northern attacks upon slavery became 




THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 243 

the more determined were the people of the South to stand 
by what they considered their rights under the Con- 
stitution. 

The Question of Slavery before the United States Su- 
preme Court. — In a lawsuit over the ownership of a negro 
slave named Dred Scott the Supreme Court of the United 
States decided that the Constitution permitted a master 
to take his slaves into any territory of the United States. 
This decision enraged the people of the North who were 
opposed to slavery. The judges who made the decision 
were abused in newspapers and public speeches. Al- 
though many Northern people did not join in this abuse, 
yet the bitter attacks upon the judges angered the South 
against the North, \\dien Northern States refused to 
carry out the law of Congress which required that slaves 
escaping into their borders be returned to their Southern 
owners this anger increased. 

The John Brown Raid. — Another event that increased 
the feeling between the North and South was the John 
Brown raid. John Brown was a Northern aljolitionist who 
had been engaged in 1)loody fights with the slave owners 
of Kansas. With a few followers he went to Virginia, 
broke into a house where arms belonging to the United 
States were stored, seized a number of guns, and called 
upon the negro slaves to join him in a war upon the 
white people of the South for the purpose of abolishing 
slavery. Brown's party killed several white citizens, and 
took others prisoners; Init the slaves did not join them, 
as they had expected. The raid proved a failure. John 
Brown was captured, tried for treason and murder, was 
found guilty, and was hanged. Yet many of the Abo- 



244 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

litionists of the North praised John Brown, and in news- 
pajjers and pubUc speeches declared he had done right. 
This led Southern people to believe that the sentiment in 
the North was in favor of Brown's plans. 

Abraham Lincoln Chosen President of the United States. 
— In the midst of this bitter feeling between North and 
South members of the Republican Party met in Chicago 
to choose a man for whom their party would vote for 
President. During the meeting friends of Lincoln 
brought in two old fence rails which Lincoln had split 
when a young man. With the rails was carried a ban- 
ner bearing the words, "Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Can- 
didate for the Presidency." The rails were greeted with 
cheers, and Lincoln was nominated. The party of Jef- 
ferson Davis could not agree upon a candidate for their 
side to vote for, and split into two parts. Lincoln was 
then elected President of the United States. 

The Southern States Leave the Union From the be- 
ginning of the government the Southern States had be- 
lieved that a State had the right to withdraw, or secede, 
from the Union. Northern States also had held this 
view, and in the New England States particularly it had 
been often asserted. When Lincoln was elected Pres- 
ident the Southern States determined to secede. They 
did this not because Lincoln himself was hateful to them, 
but the party to which he belonged included the bitter- 
est enemies of the South. The Southern people believed 
that with this party in control of the government deci- 
sions of the Supreme Court would be disregarded, the 
Constitution would be broken, and their rights trampled 
upon. 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 



245 



Jeiferson Davis Chosen President of the Confederate 

States. — Between Deceml^er, i860, and February, 1861, 
seven States withdrew from the Union — South Car- 
olina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisi- 
ana, and Texas. Delegates from the seceded States met 
at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new government, 




CONFEDERATE CAPITOL, RICHMOND, VA. 



called the Confederate States of America. Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen President, and Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice President. Four 
other States — Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and 
Tennessee — afterward joined the Confederacy, and the 
capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Vir- 
ginia. 

Lincoln and Davis in Later Years. — Soon after Lincoln 
was made President a terrible war between the United 



246 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

States and the Confederate States began. The war lasted 
four years, and closed with the armies of the United States 
victorious. Just after the close of the war President 
Lincoln was killed. A half -crazy man named John Wilkes 
Booth crept up behind the President in a theater and shot 
him. Plis death was a great loss to the South as well 
as to the North; for if Lincoln had lived he would have 
saved the Southerners from much of the harsh treatment 
they received just after the war. To-day the memory of 
Abraham Lincoln is honored in all parts of our country. 

At the close of the war President Davis was arrested 
on the charge of treason, and was thrown into prison. 
After two years of imprisonment he was released, and his 
case was never tried. He died at his home in Mississippi, 
at the age of eighty-one, loved and revered by the people 
of the South, respected by good men everywhere. 

What different political beliefs did the parties of Davis and of Lincoln have ? Tell how- 
slavery came to prevail in the South and not in the North. How was slavery regarded in 
the South ? How did many Northern people regard it ? Tell about the attacks of the 
abolitionists upon slavery and slave owners; the reply of the Southerners. What was the 
decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott lawsuit ? How was this 
decision received ? Who was John Brown? Tell about his raid. How did this increase 
the hatred between North and South ? Tell about the nomination of Lincoln for President 
by the Republican Party ; the result of the election. At the beginning of our government 
what belief about secession was held by all the States ? Why did the Southern States de- 
termine to secede when Lincoln was elected President? Tell about the formation of the 
Confederate States government ; the officers chosen ; the capitals. Tell about the last 
days of Lincoln ; of Davis. 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 247 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The War between the States, 



The Beginning of the AVar. 

How the War Began. — Jefferson Davis and the people 
of the South beHeved that a State had a right to leave the 
Union. Abraham Lincoln and the Northern people de- 
clared a State had no such right. So when the officers 
of the seceded vStates asked President Lincoln to remove 
the United States soldiers from the forts in their borders 
he refused to do so. He not only refused to remove these 
troops, but he sent supplies and more troops to Fort Sum- 
ter, on the coast of South Carolina. The Southern people 
believed that by sending these soldiers to Fort Sumter 
the North began the war. President Davis ordered the 
Confederate troops near Fort Sumter to capture the fort 
before the ships bearing President Lincoln's reinforce- 
ments should arrive. On April 12, 1861, Southern sol- 
diers attacked the fort. After a stubborn defense lasting 
part of two days Fort Sumter was surrendered to the 
Confederates. The great war had begun. 

The First Great Battle. — The first great battle of the 
war was fought in Virginia on Bull Run Creek, near 
Manassas Junction. The Northern army started south 
from Washington to capture Richmond, the Confederate 



248 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

capital. They were met by the Southern army. In one 
part of the field of battle the troops under the Southern 
General T. J. Jackson were fiercely attacked, but they firm- 
ly held their ground. In the midst of the fight another 
Southern officer, whose troops had begun to retreat, see- 
ing Jackson's unyielding bravery, shouted to his own 
men : "Look; there is Jackson, standing like a stone wall! 
Let us die here, or conquer!" His men took fresh cour- 
age at the sight. The advance of the Northern troops 
was checked. At this moment fresh Confederate troops 
arrived upon the field. The Southern army rushed for- 
ward, and gained a great victory, driving their enemies 
back to Washington. General T. J. Jackson, who became 
one of the most famous generals of the war, was ever 
afterward known as '' Stone w^all Jackson." 

What Each Side was Trying to Do — The purpose of 
President Lincoln was to conquer the Confederacy, so as 
to make the seceded States come back into the Union. To 
carry out this purpose the Northern armies east of the 
Alleghany Mountains tried again and again to capture 
Richmond, the Confederate capital. West of the Alle- 
ghanies. Northern troops invaded the Confederacy in the 
effort to defeat its armies and capture its cities. North- 
ern armies also tried to get control of the Mississippi 
River by attacking Southern cities and forts along its 
bank, their object being in this w^ay to cut the Confed- 
eracy in two. Lastly, Northern ships of war stationed 
themselves outside of Southern' harbors to prevent any 
ships passing in or out. The purpose of President Davis 
was to defend the Confederacy from the attacks made 
upon it. The object of the Southern armies was to drive 



THE STORY OF TWO KENTUCKY BOYS. 249 




BATTLE OF MANASSAS. 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 



251 



the invading armies from tlieir soil. In numbers, in 
wealth, in ships, and in supplies of war, the North had a 
tremendous advantage. 

Tell how the war between the States began. Where was the first great battle? Tell 
about General T. J. Jackson's bravery ; the result of the battle. What was President Lin- 
coln's purpose in the war ? How did he try to carry out this purpose ? What w as the 
purpose of President Davis ? the object of the Southern armies ? the stronger side ? 



West of the Alleghaxies. 

The Southern Line Broken. Battle of Shiloh. — To euard 
their territory west of the Alleghanies the Confederates 
built a line of forts through 
Kentucky. The Northern 
General U. S. Grant captured 
two of these forts (Henry and 
Donelson), breaking through 
this line. General Grant then 
advanced southward to near the 
boundary between Tennessee 
and [Mississippi. Here he Avas 
met by an army under General 
Albert Sidney Johnston, one of 
the best Southern generals. 
The great battle of Shiloh general a s. johnston. 
followed. The first day of the battle the Confederates 
were victorious. But late in the afternoon General John- 
ston was mortally wounded. In the night another army 
came to the aid of General Grant, and next day the Con- 
federates (under General Beauregard) retired southward. 

General Bragg's Defense of Tennessee. — The Southern 
General Bragg now began a struggle for the possession 
of Kentuckv and Tennessee. At Murfreesboro, in Middle 




252 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Tennessee, a bloody battle was fought between Bragg' s 
army and that of General Rosecrans. Both sides claimed 
the victory. The next year the same generals met in 
northern Georgia, just south of the Tennessee line. Here 
the great battle of Chickamauga was fought, in which the 
Confederates gained a brilliant victory. General Grant 
now took Rosecrans's place, and in the battle of Chat- 
tanooga, Tennessee, defeated General Bragg's army. 

Northern Troops Invade Georgia. — General Sherman 
was now placed in command of the Northern army in the 

West ( 1864) . S h e r m a n 
started southw^ard through 
Georgia. He was opposed by 
a Southern army first under 
General Joseph E. Johnston, 
then under General Hood. 
The Confederates repeatedly 
checked the larger forces of 
the Federals, but could not stop 
their advance. Sherman's sol- 
diers burned houses and laid 
waste the country in their path. 
At last they reached the seacoast at Savannah. Sherman 
then turned northward through the Carolinas. 

The Struggle for the Mississippi Kiver. — In the second 
year of the w-ar Northern warships entered the mouth of 
the Mississippi and captured New Orleans. Higher up 
the river Vicksburg and Port Hudson, held by the Con- 
federates, still guarded the stream. The next year Gen- 
eral Grant with a large Union force succeeded in taking 
Vicksburg after heroic resistance by its defenders. Port 




(JKNRRAl. W. T. SIIKRMAN. 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 253 

Hudson surrendered a few days later. The whole Mis- 
sissippi River was now in the hands of Union troops. 
The Confederacy was cut into two parts. 

West of the Mississippi — A\'est of the Mississippi were 
the Confederate States of Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Texas, with the disputed State of Missouri. In the first 
year of the war the Confederates under Generals Price 
and McCulloch won the battle of Wilson's Creek, in ]Mis- 
souri. Union troops afterward gained control of the 
State. In Louisiana General Dick Taylor with a small 
Southern army defeated General Banks in the battles of 
Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. In Texas a fort at Sabine 
Pass, garrisoned by a little band of forty-two men under 
Lieutenant Dick Dowling, disabled or drove back Union 
ships carrying a large army for the invasion of the State. 
Galveston, which had been seized by Union troops, was 
recaptured by the Confederates in a brilliant fight. 

How was the Southern line west of the Alleghanies broken ? Tell about General Grant's 
advance and the battle of Shiloh. Name three great battles fought by the Southern Gen- 
eral Bragg. What was the result of each ? Tell about General Sherman's march through 
Georgia ; about the capture of the Mississippi River by the Federals. Name some impor- 
tant battles west of the Mississippi. 

The Defense of Richmond. 

General Lee's First Campaigns (1862-4) The next year 

after the battle ' of Manassas another Northern army 
(under General McClellan) advanced against Richmond. 
In the ''Seven Days' Battles," near Richmond, General 
R. E. Lee, commanding the Southern army, drove back 
the enemy and saved the city. General Lee was greatly 
helped by General Stonewall Jackson. Jackson defeated 
four different Northern armies in the Shenandoah Val- 
ley, and kept them from going to the aid of McClellan. 



254 THE BEGINNERS HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON. 



In the battles of Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and 
Chancellorsville (all in Virginia) General Lee thrice de- 
feated Union armies that were 
trying to capture Richmond. 
But the victory at Chancellors- 
ville was dearly bought by the 
South. General Lee's ablest 
assistant, General Stonewall 
Jackson, was mistaken in the 
darkness for the enemy, and 
was mortally wounded by his 
own men. 

Twice General Lee crossed 
the Potomac River and in- 
vaded the North. In the first 
invasion a drawn battle was 
fought at Antietam Creek, Maryland. The Northern 
general having received heavy reinforcements. General 
Lee returned to Virginia. In Lee's second invasion the 
greatest battle of the \var was fought near Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania. The Northern General Meade had one 
hundred thousand men ; Lee, seventy thousand. The fight 
lasted three days. On the third day a heroic charge 
by the Confederates was repulsed by overwhelming num- 
bers of the Federals. Unable to drive back the superior 
forces of the enemy, Lee slowly retreated into Virginia. 

Fighting' between Lee and Grant. Surrender of Lee. — 
General Grant was now placed iii command of the army 
opposed to Lee. His forces outnumbered Lee's three to 
one. Once more a great Northern army started toward 
Richmond. On the way the great battles of the Wilder- 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 255 

ness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor were fought. Fi- 
nally, by overwhelming numbers, Lee was forced back to 
Petersburg, near Richmond. When Grant captured the 
town of Petersburg, Richmond was abandoned by the 
Confederates, and Lee began to retreat toward the south- 
west. At Appomattox Court House, seventy-five miles 
from Richmond, he encountered Grant's forces, number- 
ing over one hundred thousand men. Here, on April 19, 
1865, Lee gave up the struggle, and surrendered his little 
army, which was then reduced. to ten thousand soldiers. 
General Grant treated General Lee and the ragged, half- 
starved Confederates with the greatest kindness. He sup- 
plied them with food, and let them keep their horses to use 
in their farm work at home. When General Lee's army 
surrendered the other Confederate forces soon laid down 
their arms, and the great war was ended. 

Tell about the Seven Days' battles ; about General Jackson's victories ; the battle of 
Chancellorsviile ; Lee's first invasion of the North ; his second invasion; the fighting be- 
tween the armies of Grant and Lee ; the surrender of Lee ; General Grant's conduct. 

After the Surrender. 
General Robert E. Lee. — The greatest general of the 
Confederacy was Robert E. Lee. Like President Davis, 
Lee had graduated at W^est Point, and had been a gallant 
officer in the Mexican War. When the war between the 
States broke out Lee was offered the chief command of 
the armies of the LTnited States. But he declined the offer 
because he believed it his duty to stand by his State. In 
the second year of the war he was placed in command of 
the Confederate army in Virginia, and later was made 
commander in chief of all the Southern forces. The army 
he commanded was never as large as that opposed to him 



256 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

— sometimes not half as large. Yet for three years he 
successfully defended Richmond, driving back one North- 
ern army after another, and proving himself one of the 
greatest generals of the world. General Lee was not only 



k^^ 



fi' 




GENERAL R. E. LEE. 

a brave soldier and a great general, but he was also a mod- 
est Christian gei>tleman. When the war was over he 
became president of Washington College, in Virginia, 
and spent the rest of his life as a teacher of Southern boys. 
General U. S. Grant. — The greatest general of the North- 
ern, or Federal, armies was Ulysses S. Grant. Like 
Davis and Lee, Grant was a graduate of West Point 
Academv, and a l^rave officer in the Mexican W^ar. Dur- 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 



257 



ing the first three years of the war between the States, 
General Grant commanded troops west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. On account of his victories in Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Mississippi he 
was made commander in chief 
of all the Union forces, and 
was put in charge of the army 
in Virginia, which had been so 
often beaten by General I^ee. 
General Grant afterward be- 
came President of the United 
States. He was an able gen- 
eral, and a generous, kind- 
hearted man. When he died 
several ex-Confederate gener- 
als showed their respect for 
his memory by attendmg his 
funeral. 

The Battles and Leaders of the War There is not space 

in this book to tell the story of the war. You must study 
it in larger histories. Only a few of the most important 
battles have been named. Both the soldiers who wore the 
''blue" and those who wore the "gray" showed the great- 
est bravery. Both fought for the cause they believed was 
right. Among the great generals on the Confederate 
side, besides Robert E. Lee, were Stonewall Jackson, Al- 
bert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, Beauregard, 
Hood, Stuart, Forrest, Longstreet, S. D. Lee, Gordon. 
On the side of the Union were Generals Grant, Sherman, 
Rosecrans, Hancock, Thomas, Sheridan, Aleade, jNIcClel- 
lan, and Hooker, 




GENERAL U. S. GRANT. 



258 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Slavery Abolished. — During the war President Lincoln 
decided that it would help to weaken the Confederacy to 
free the slaves. So he wrote his famous "Emancipation 
Proclamation," declaring free the slaves in those parts of 
the Confederacy not yet occupied by Northern armies. 
At the close of the war a change, or amendment, was added 




The " Stars and Br 



The " Battle Flag. 



CONFEDERATE FLAGS. 



to the Constitution abolishing slavery in all parts of the 
United States. 

One Country Once More — The terrible war brought sor- 
row and suffering and death everywhere. The Southern 
people suffered most because the fighting was on their 
soil. Their family circles were broken by death, their 
homes were destroyed, their farms laid waste, their stock 
killed. But bravely those who were left set to work to 
build up the old South, and make it even greater than be- 
fore. Northern and Southern people had learned to re- 
spect each other's courage; now they came to understand 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 



259 



each other better. The war was like a great storm whose 
black clouds had long l)een gathering and whose thunders 
had been muttering in the distance. At last the tempest 






\\ ,^ J^ 












a ' 



CONFEDERATR SOI.DIKRS RETURNING HOME. 

burst in its fury, carrying death and ruin in its path. But 
after a while its last echoes died away, the sun rose once 
more in splendor, and the air seemed never so pure, nor 
the skies so clear. Our country to-day, after the awful 
suffering caused by the war, is stronger, more united, 
more prosperous than ever before. 



Tell wli.it you can about Ceneral R. E. Lee ; about General U. S. Grant. What can 

you say of the soldiers on both sides ? Name some of the leading Confederate generals ; the 
leading Union generals. Tell about the abolition of slavery ; the suffering caused by the 
win ; the good results the war produced. 



26o THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Our Country Reunited. 



Dark Days for the South — The suffering of the South 
did not end with the war. There was a period of "Re- 
construction" lasting five years or more, during which the 
Northern people as victors tried to govern the Southern 
people as subjects. Besides the amendment to the Con- 
stitution abolishing slavery, the Southern States were 
forced to accept two other amendments, which gave other 
privileges to the negroes and allowed them to vote. At 
the same time many of the best white citizens w^ere not 
allowed to vote. The result was that ignorant and dis- 
honest men were elected to the offices, unjust laws were 
passed, good laws were not enforced, the people's money 
was wasted or stolen, and hatred between whites and 
blacks was aroused. United States soldiers were kept 
in the Southern States to uphold these incompetent State 
officers and enforce the bad laws. At last the people of 
the X^orth came to see that it was best for both negroes 
and whites to let the people of each State manage their 
own affairs. Accordingly, all white citizens in the South 
were once more allowed to vote, and the United States 
troops were withdrawn. The intelligent white citizens 
at once took charge of the State and county governments, 
and the Southern people began to be peaceful and con- 
tented. 



OUR COUNTRY REUNITED. 



261 



Progress of the South. — 

Since the close of the dark 
(lays of ''Reconstruction" 
the South has made won- 
derful progress. Southern 
people are glad that slavery 
is gone, and they would not 
restore it if they could. The 
old friendly feeling between 
the white and black races 
that existed before the war 
is returning, as the negroes, 
led by such teachers as 
Booker Washington, prin- 
cipal of a great negro school 
in Alabama, are learning to 
shun politics and to become 
skillful and industrious 
workers. Southern farmers 
have ceased to depend on 
cotton and corn alone, and 
have begun to cultivate fruit, 
vegetables, and other crops. 
Coal, iron, and other min- 
erals abound in several 
Southern States, and the 
mining industry now em- 
ploys thousands of men and 
millions of capital. Instead 
of shipping all their raw 
cotton to the North and 




'.62 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



to Europe to be made into cloth, Southern people have 
begun to build their own cotton factories in sight of the 
cotton fields. In Texas great underground streams of 
oil have been discovered. Wells bored in this region 
bring the oil to the surface in huge fountains. Having 
always maintained splendid private schools and colleges, 
the Southern States now also provide by taxation excel- 
lent public schools for wdiite and for black children. 

Progress of the West. — The progress of the West since 
the war has been equally wonderful. Chicago, no longer 




BRIDGE ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI AT ST. LOUIS. 

a ''Western frontier" tow^n, has grown to be the second 
largest city in America. In 1869 the first railroad to the 
Pacific Ocean was completed, connecting the East and the 
West. This and other Pacific railroads afterward built 
hastened the settlement of the great West. At the close 
of the war there were only five States beyond the row 
of States touching the wxst bank of the Mississippi River. 
Nine more great States have since been formed from the 
Territories in this region, leaving only three Territories 
(besides Indian Territory) yet to become States. 
New Territory Purchased in the Par North. — Two years 



OUR COUNTRY REUNITED. 



263 



after the close of the war between the States we bought 
the northwest corner of North America from Russia 
for seven mihion two hundred thousand dollars. We 
changed the name of our new purchase from Russian 
America to Alaska. This was the first territory ac- 
quired by us that did not touch any part of the United 
States. Alaska is more than twice as large as Texas, 




M 



CRADLING FOR GOLD ON THE ALASKA COAST 



but on account of its cold climate it has not yet been 
worth much to us. Recent discoveries of gold in Alaska, 
however, have attracted thousands of gold-hunters to 
that region. 

Some Recent Inventions — Since the war a number of 
inventions have come into use that have greatly changed 
the life of our people. The electric light is taking the place 
of the gas light and the oil lamp. Telephones now make 
it possible for persons hundreds of miles apart to talk 
to each other. Electric cars have taken the place of 



204 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



horse cars in the cities. Instead of buggies and car- 
riages, drawn by horses, automobiles, driven by steam or 
electricity over ordinary wagon roads, are coming into 
use. Bicycles are ridden by rich and poor, old and 
young, to save many a weary step. Ice machines have 
changed ice from a luxury which only the rich could af- 
ford to a comfort in reach of the poorest. Typewriting 
machines are taking the place of pen and ink with letter- 
writers. In fact, if anyone had told our grandfathers 
fifty years ago that all these changes would take place 
it would have seemed like a strange fairy story. 






mi 




1^ *jnT^T-m 



THE COURT OF HONOR AT THE COLUMBIAN FAIR. 

World's Fairs — The American people love to celebrate 
l)irthdays and anniversaries. In 1876 we celebrated the 
one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence by our first World's Fair. It was called the 
Centennial Exposition, and w^as held at Philadelphia. In 
1892-3 we celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of 



OUR COUNTRY REUNITED. 



265 



the discovery of America 1)y the great Cokimbian Expo- 
sition at Chicago. \\'e are preparing to celebrate by 
another World's Fair, to be held in St. Louis, in 1903, the 
one hundredth anniversary of the purchase of Louisiana. 
France's Gift — To show their friendship for the United 
States the people of France presented us with an immense 




1 



SCENE IX ST. LOUIS. 



Statue called "Liberty Enlightenino- the W^orld." The 
statue stands on an island at the entrance to New York 
Harbor. It is so large that inside the head of "Liberty" 
is a room big enough to hold forty persons. A picture 
of this statue is on the outside of the cover of this book. 



Tell about the suffering of the South during " Reconstruction " daj-s. To what con- 
clusion did the North finally come ? What was the result ? Tell something of the prog- 
ress of the South since Reconstruction ; the progress of the West ; the purchase of Alaska ; 
our anniversarv expositions ; France's gift. 

18 



266 TPiE beginner's history of our country. 



CHAPTER XX. 

War with Spain. 



Our First Island Territory. 

We Take Up Cuba's Fight — In 1898 we went to war 
with Spain — the first European nation we had fought 
since the War of 181 2. Spain had once owned all the is- 
lands of the West Indies. One 
by one they had been taken 
from her until only Cuba and 
Porto Rico remained in her 
possession. The people of 
these Spanish islands were 
wretchedly governed, and time 
and again the Cubans took up 
arms to throw off the rule of 
their masters. But the Span- 
iards always conquered them, 
and ruled more cruelly than 
e V e r . The people of the 
United States felt sorry for 
We tried to get Spain to 
But the Spaniards wxre 




ADMIRAL DEWEY. 



their Cuban neighbors. 

rule the island more mildl}^ 

suspicious of us, and did not like our sympathy with the 

Cubans. While one of our finest battleships, the Maine, 

was visiting the harbor of Havana, Cuba, she was blown 

up, and over two hundred of her sailors were killed in the 



WAR WITH SPAIN. 



267 



explosion. The people of the United States believed this 
cowardly deed was done by Spanish officers, or that they 
allowed it to be done. Congress then directed the Pres- 
ident to use the army and navy of the United States to 
drive the Spanish from Cuba, if they still refused to set 
the island free. 

Fighting' in the Philippines. — ^War began April 21, 1898. 
The first great battle was 
fought in the Pacific Ocean 
three thousand miles from our 
coast. Commodore Dewey, 
with a fleet of our ships, was 
stationed at Hongkong, China. 
He sailed against the Philip- 
pine Islands, owned by Spain, 
and without losing one of his 
own men attacked and com- 
pletely destroyed the Spanish 
ships in the harbor of Manila, 
the chief city of the Philip- 
pines. For his splendid suc- 
cess Congress voted to present 

Commodore Dewey with a sword, and the President pro- 
moted him from commodore to admiral, the highest rank 
in the navy. 

In the West Indies. Hobson's Brave Deed. — Meanwhile 
Spain sent another fleet to guard Cuba. These Spanish 
vessels sailed into the harbor of Santiago, on the Cuban 
coast. An American fleet under Captain Sampson, with 
Commodore Schley next in command, stood outside the 
harbor, ready to give battle to the Spanish ships if they 




268 THE beginner's HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

should venture out. The entrance to tlie harl^or of Santi- 
ago is a narrow winding channel, guarded by forts, sO' it 
was impossible for our ships to get inside the harbor. 
Lieutenant Hobson offered to obstruct this narrow chan- 
nel, and thus "bottle up" the Spanish ships and prevent 
their escape. With seven volunteers he took a coal ship, 




THE BATTLESHIP "TEXAS." 



the Mcrriinac, into the channel, and sunk her partly across 
it. Hobson and his men hurried from the sinking ship 
and floated off on a raft they had brought with them for 
this purpose. They were captured by the Spaniards, but 
their captors in admiration for their brave deed treated 
them with great kindness. 
Land Attack on Santiago. — United States forces were 



WAR WITH SPAIN, 269 

landed to attack the city of Santiago. Our soldiers, after 
sharp lighting, drove the Spaniards from El Caney and 
San Juan, outposts of Santiago, into the city itself. Our 
army was commanded by General Shafter. Among the 
brave officers who helped win the victory were General 
Joe Wheeler, a famous Confederate cavalry leader, and 
Colonels Wood and Roosevelt, of the "Rough Riders," a 




ADMIRAL £. 



ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 



regiment composed chiefly of \\'estern cowboys, but in- 
cluding also many college men from the East. 

Destruction of the Spanisli Fleet. — The Spanish Admiral 
Cervera, finding that the sunken Mcrriinac did not wholly 
block the channel, one Sunday morning, in the hope of 
escaping, started out with his fleet. His ships were at 
once pursued by the vessels of our fleet, under Commodore 
Schley (Ca])tain Sampson being absent at the time). The 
Spaniards made a brave fight, but in less than three hours 
every one of their ships was disabled, and Admiral Cer- 
vera was a prisoner. 



2/0 THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

End of the War. — Beaten in every battle, Spain was now 
ready to give up. On August 12, 1898, both sides agreed 
to stop fighting. The war lasted less than four months. 
In the treaty of peace Spain agreed to give up all claim 
to Cuba, the people of the United States to decide what 
should be done with the island. Spain also agreed to let 
us have the island of Porto Rico, and to sell us the Phil- 
ippine Islands for twenty million dollars. 

Cuba and the Philippines — The Congress of the United 
States has promised to withdraw our soldiers from Cuba 
and let the Cubans form an independent, government of 
their own. Many of the Filipino people, under their 
leader, Aguinaldo, wanted their country also to be inde- 
pendent, and they' fought to keep our troops from taking 
possession of the island. They were beaten, however, and 
Aguinaldo himself was captured. 

Hawaii Annexed. — The President and Congress of the 
Hawaiian Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, two thousand 
miles southwest of San Francisco, had once •applied for 
annexation to the United States, and w^e had refused to 
admit them. They again applied during our war with 
Spain; we annexed the islands, and they became subject 
to the United States. 

Looking Backward. — Looking backward over the his- 
tory of our country, we see that more than four hundred 
years have passed since the shores of America were first 
visited by Columbus. In the year 1500 European sailors 
had just begun to venture in the track of Columbus across 
the dreaded ocean to the unknown shores of the New 
World. One hundred years later (1600) the vast conti- 
nent was still the home of wild animals and savage In- 



WAR WITH SPAIN. 27 1 

dians, undisturbed by the white man save by wandering 
bands of explorers and by a few Spanish settlers in Flor- 
ida and in Aiexico. Turning the page till another hun- 
dred years have passed ( 1700), we lind the home-building 
Englishmen have begun to occupy America. A row of 
struggling English colonies lines the Atlantic coast. Back 
of the Englishmen are the settlements of their enemies 
the French; south of them, the territory of the no less 
hated Spaniards. Another century brings us to the year 
1800. What mighty changes do we see! The English- 
speaking settlers now own the country as far west as the 
Mississippi River. The independence of the English col- 
onies has been declared and won, and a new nation has 
been born, the United States of America. In 1900 an- 
other hundred y^ars have passed. How appears our 
country to-day in the dawn of the twentieth century ? A 
great and powerful nation whose territorv stretches from 
ocean to ocean, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, and in- 
cludes distant islands of the seas; a government whose 
flag is respected in every quarter of the globe; a people 
contented, prosperous, and happy, at peace with the world, 
and filled with the spirit of love and helpfulness for each 
other; enjoying the blessings of freedom and good gov- 
ernment to a degree rarely equaled, and nowhere ex- 
celled, on the face of the globe. 

The Future. — Every American has a right to be proud 
of our country. It is our country. Tt belongs to every 
one of us. Our fathers have made it what it is to-day. 
V/ho can tell what the next century has in store for us? 
Shall our beloved country go onward and upward in the 
path of honor and greatness? Every boy and girl who 



27- 



THE BEGINNER S HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



reads this book will help to answer this question. If the 
children of America grow up truthful and pure and brave, 
proud of their country, and loving God and their fellow- 
men; if they have the rugged honesty of x\braham Lin- 
coln, the devotion to duty of Robert E. Lee, the wisdom 
of Benjamin Franklin, the love of country of George 
Washington; if they copy the virtues of their fathers 
and avoid their faults, the future of our country will be 
even grander and more glorious than its past. 

In what year did we go to war with Spain ? Tell about Spain's rule of her West Indian 
islands; our sympathy with the Cubans; the blowing up of the Mazfie ; the action of 
Congress. Tell about the battle of Manila; the honors to Commodore Dewey. Where 
did Spain send another fleet? Where did Sampson and Schley station our ships? Tell 
about Hobson's brave deed ; the land attack on Santiago ; the destruction of the Spanish 
fleet. How long did the war last ? What was agreed upon in the treaty of peace ? What 
has Congress promised the Cubans ? Tell about Aguinaldo's resistance in the Philippines ; 
the annexation of Hawaii. Turning back the pages of our history to the year 1500, what 
do we see ? in the year 1600 ? in 1700 ? in 1800 ? in 1900 ? What of the future ? 




Index. 



Abolitionists, 242 

Adams, second President, 193 

Aguinaldo (Ah-gwin-al'do), 270 

A]abama, 181, 245 

Alamo, 225 

Alaska, 263 

Alden, John, 74 

Alexander, Indian chief, 77 

Almanac, Poor Richard's, iri5 

America, discovery by Columbus, li ; 

by Cabot, 17 ; name, 18 
Annapolis, 54 

Antietam (An-tee'-tam), battle, 254 
Appomattox, surrender, 255 
Arkansas, 224, 245 
Articles of Confederation, 160 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 48, 49 

Baltiinore, first Lord, 50 ; second Lord, 

51, 53 
Baltimore city, 54, 215 
Banks, General, 253 

Beauregard (Bo'-re-gard\ General, 251 
Berkeley, Governor, '48, 49 
Black Hawk War, 236, 2:39 
Boone, Daniel, 168-173 
Boonesborough, 171 
Booth, J. Wilkes, 246 
Boston, 75, 146, 150 
Braddock, General, 136, 137 
Bradford, Governor, 72, 73 
Bragg, General, 251 
Brown, John, 243 
Bull Run, see ^Manassas 
Bunker Hill, battle, 148, 149 
Burgoyne (Bur'-goin), General, 157 

Cables, ocean, 219 

Cabot, John, 17 

Cabot, Sebastian, 17 

California, 226,229 

Carolina, colony, 55-58 

Carolina, French fort, 55 

Cartier, Jacques (Zhack Kart-e-avo, 

94-97 
Castell, Robert, 60 
Cervera (Cer-ve'ra), Admiral, 269 
Champlain (Sham- plane'), Samuel, 94, 

97-100 
Champlain, Lake, 100 
Chancellorsville, battle, 254 
Charles L king of England, 50 
Charles II, kmg of England, 55, 82, 88 
Charleston, 56, 58, 151 
Chattanooga, battle, 252 



Chicago, 262, 265 

Chickamauga, battle, 252 

Clark, George Rogers, 169, 173-178 

Clark, William, 197 

Clermont, steamboat, 211, 213 

Cold Harbor, battle, 255 

Colonies, general view of, 108-112; 
groups, 109 

Columbus, Christopher, early life, 3-5; 
' discoveries, 6-15 ; old age and death, 
15, 10 ; results of discoveries, 17 

Cohimbus, Diego, brother of Christo- 
pher, 3 

Columbus, Diego, son of Christopher, 8 

Concord, skirmish, 147, 148 

Confederate States, 245, 25:5 

Congress, Continental, 147, 150 

Congress, under the Constitution, 182 

Connecticut, colony, 77 
I Constitution, prese'nt, 182, 18^3 
I Cotton gin, 187, 188 
! Creek Indians, 204, 208 

Cuba, 13, 16, 266, 270 

Custis, :\Irs. Martha, 137 

Dare, Virginia, 28 
Davis, Jefferson, 2a3, 2:37-246 
Debtors, oppressed, 59, 60 
Decatur, Lieutenant, 200 
Declaration of Independence, 152, 192 
Delaware, Lord, 44 
Delaware, colony, 87, 88 
De Leon, Ponce' (Pon'-thay dav Lav- 
own'), 20 
De :Monts, Sieur (S-yur Da :MongO, .98 
De Soto, Ferdinand, 21, 22 
Detroit, Fort, 175 
Dewey, Admiral, 267 
Dinwiddie, Governor, 134 
Donelson, Fort, 251 
Donnacona, Indian chief, 96 
Dowling, Lieutenant, 253 
Dred Scott decision, 243 
Duquesne (Du-Kane'), Fort, 133, i:-S 
Dutch, 89-92 

El Caney, battle, 269 
Electricit}% Franklin's studies in, 136 
Electric light, 263 ; cars, 263 
Elizabeth, Queen, 25, 32, 55 
Emancipation proclamation, 258 
Erie, Lake, battle, 203 
I Expositions, 264 

I Ferdinand and Isabella, 8, 15 



274 



Index. 



Field, Cj^rus W., 220 

Flag, first American, 150; Confederate, 
258 

Florida, 20, 21, 208, 221, 245 

Forrest, General, 257 

Franklin, Benjamin, 162-167 

Fredericksburg, battle, 254 

French fishermen, 18 ; explorations, 94- 
107; territory, 106, 143, 195; settle- 
ments, 99, 106 ; war, 132-143 

Fulton, Robert, 212, 213 

Gadsden Purchase, 232 

Galveston, battle, 253 

Gates, General, 157 

Genoa, 2, 3 

Georgia, 59-05, 245, 252 

Germantown, 86 

Gettysburg, battle, 254 

GofTe, Colonel, 79 

Gold, discovery of, 229, 263 

Goliad massacre, 225, 226 

Gosnold, Captain, 35 

Grant, General U. S., 251, 252, 254, 256 

Great Meadows, battle, 135 

Greene, General, 157 

Hadley, Indian attack upon, 79 
Half-Moon, ship, 90 
Hancock, General, 257 
Harvard College, 115 
Havana, 16, 266 
Hawaii (Hah-wi'-e), 270 
Hayti, 13, 16 

Henrietta Maria, Queen, 51 
Henrv, king of England, 25 
Henry, Patrick, 175, 190, 192 
Henry, Prince of Portugal, 5 
Hobson, Lieutenant, 267', 268 
Hochelago (Ho-she- lah'-ga), 96 
Holland, 68, 89 
Hood, General, 252 
Hooker, General, 257 
Horseshoe Bend, battle, 224 
Houston, Sam, 221-232 
Hudson, Henry, 89-91 

Illinois, 173, 236 

India, western route to, 7, 13, 90, lOl 

Indians, name, 13; in Virginia, ;i9-42; 
in Maryland, 52 ; in Georgia, 61-63 ; in 
Massachusetts, 69-72; in New Eng- 
land, 77-80 ; in Pennsylvania, 84-86 ; 
in New York, 92 ; in Canada, 95 ; in 
Kentucky, 168-171 ; in Tennessee, 179, 
180 ; Houston's life among, 223, 224 

Inventions, recent, 263, 264 

Iroquois (Ir'o-quoy) Indians, 99, 100,138 

Isabella, Queen, 8, 9, 15 

Isthmus of Panama, 98 



Jackson, Andrew, 201-209, 222, 224 
Jackson, General Stonewall, 248, 

254 
Jamaica, 14 

James, king of England, 32, 36, 86 
Jamestown, 36 



253, 



Jaspar, Sergeant (Sar-jent), 152 
Jefferson, Thomas, 189-200 
Johnston, Gen. Albert Sidney, 251 
Johnston. Gen. Joseph E., 252 

Kaskaskia, 173, 175 

Kentucky. 170-173, 2a3 

Kmg Philip's War, 77-80 

King's Mountain, battle, 158, 159 

Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, 49 

Labrador, 17 

Lafayette, General, 157 

Lake Erie, battle, 203 

La Salle, Robert Cavalier, 94, 101-107 

Lawrence, Captain, 204 

Lee, General Robert E , 253-256 

Lee, General S. D., 257 

Lewis and Clark expedition, 197, 198, 

229 
Lexington, battle, 147 
Liberty bell, 152 
Liberty statue, 265 

Lincoln, Abraham, 2:^3-236, 240, 244, 246 
Locomotive, first, 215 
London Company, 35 
Longstreet, (general, 2.57 
Louisiana, 105, 106, 195, 196, 221, 245 

Magellan, Ferdinand, 22 

Maine, battleship, 266 

I\Ianassas, or Bull Run, first battle, 
247; second battle, 254 

Manhattan Island, 92 

Manila Bay, battle, 267 

Mansfield, La., battle, 253 

Marquette (Mar- kef), Father, 101, 102 

Maryland, 50-.54 

Mason and Dixon's line, 53, .54 

Massachusetts, 66-75 

Massasoit, Indian chief, 72, 73, 77 

Mayfloiver, ship, 67, 71 

Meade, General, 254 

Mexican War, 226 

Mexico, 221,222 

i\Iichigan, 176 

Mississippi River, discove'red, 22 ; ex- 
plored, 102, 105 ; contest for, 252, 253 

Mississippi, State, 181, 237, 240, 245 

Missouri, 173 

Montcalm, General, 141 

Montgomery, Ala., 245 

Monticello (Mon-ti-chel'-lo), 191, 193 

Montreal, 97 

Morse, Samuel F. B., 217-219 

Moultrie, Fort, 151 

Mount Vernon, 185 

Murfreesboro, battle, 251, 252 

Musgrove, Mary, 62 

Nacogdoches, 222, 225 
Necessity, Fort, 135 
Negroes, 260, 261 
New Amsterdam, 91 
New England, 43, 66, 77 
New England boy of colonial times, 
112-121 



Index. 



275 



New France, 94-107 

New Hampshire, 77 

New Jersej-, 88, 89 

New Netherland, 91 

New Orleans, 106 ; battle, 204 ; capture, 

252 
New York, 89-93, 155 
New York city, 155, 184 
North Carolina, 27, 55-58, 245 
Nova Scotia, 98, 99 

Oceanic, steamship, 213 
Oglethorpe, James, 60-65 
Ohio, 176 
Oregon, 198, 209, 229-232 

Pacific Ocean, 22 

Pacific railroad, 262 

Palmetto, 57, 58 

Palos, Spain, 8-10, 13 

Penn, William, 81-89 

Pennsylvania, 81-87 

Perry," Captain Oliver H., 203, 204 

Petersburg, 255 

Philadelphia, 88, 146, 156, 185, 264 

Philadelphia, ship, 199 

Philippine Islands, 22, 267, 270. 

Pilgrims, 67-74 

Pine trees of Carolina, 56, 57 

Pirates, African, 199, 200 

Pitt, William, 138 

Pleasant Hill, La., battle, 253 

Plymouth, 70 

Plymouth Company, 35 

Pocahontas, 41, 45 

Polo, Marco, 6 

Port Hudson, 252 

Port Roval, 99 

Porto Rico, 266, 270 

Portugal, 5, 8 

Potato, 32 

Powhatan, Indian chief, 40, 42 

Price, General, 253 

Princeton, battle, 156 

Printing press, 164, 166 

Priscilla Mullins. 73, 74 

Providence, R. I., 76 

Puritans. 74, 75 

Quakers, 81-83 
Quebec, 96, 97, 99 
Quebec, battle, 141 

Railroads, 214-217, 262 

Raleigh (Raw'-ley), \Valter, 24-33, 34, 

35 
Raleigh, N. C.,a3, .58 
Reconstruction period, 260 
Revere, Paul, 147 
Revolutionary War, 144-161 
Rhode Island, 75-77 
Rice plant, 57, 58 
Richmond, Va., 24.5, 248, 253-255 
Roanoke Island, 27, 28 
Rolfe, John, 45 
Roosevelt, Colonel, 269 
Rosecrans, General, 252 



Sabine Pass, battle, 2.53 

St. Augustine, 98, 108 

St. Louis, 197, 265 

St. Mary's, .52, 54 

Salem, Mass., 75 

Samoset, Indian chief, 72 

Sampson, Admiral, 267 

San Jacinto, battle, 225, 226 

San Juan (Won), battle, 269 

San Salvador, 13 

Santiago, battle, 267-269 

Saratoga, battle. 157 

Savannah, Ga., 61 

Schley (Shli), Admiral, 267, 269 

Scott,' General, 226 

Secession, 244, 245, 247 

Seminole Indians, 208 

Seven Days' battles, 2.53 

Sevier (Se-veer'), John, 159, 169, 179-181 

Shaffer, General, 269 

Sheridan, General, 257 

Sherman, General, 252 

Sherrill, Katherine, 179, 180 

Shiloh, battle, 251 

Slaves, 47, 58, 188, 241, 242, 258 

Smith, John, 34-44, 6(), 90 

South America, 15, 19 

South Carolina, 5.5, 57, 58, 245 

Sou^thern boy of colonial times, 121-131 

Southern colonies, 34-65, 109 

Southern progress since the war, 261 

Spain, 8 ; war with, 266-270 

Spottswood, Governor, 49 

Spottsylvania, battle, 255 

Squanto, Indian, 72 

Stamp tax, 145 

Stand ish, Myles, 69-74 

Standish, Rose, 71, 74 

Steamboats, 211-214 

Stephens, Alexander H., 245 

Stephenson, George, 215 

Stuart, General, 2.57 

Stuvvesant (Stv'-ves-ant) Governor, 92 

Sumter, Fort, 247 

Swedes, 87 

Taxation of the colonies, 145, 146 

Taylor, General Richard, 253 

Taylor, General Zacharj'-, 226 

Tea Party, Boston, 146 

Telegraph, 217-220 

Tennessee, 180, 245, 251 

Texas, 106, 209, 221-232, 245, 262 

Thanksgiving Day, 73 

Thomas, General, 2.57 

Tobacco, 31, 45, 47, .54 

Tomochichi (Tom-o-chee'-che), Indian 

chief, 62-64 
Travel, modes of, 12.5, 210, 217 
Travis, Colonel, 225 
Trenton, battle, 1.55 

United States, independence declared, 
1.54; acknowledged by England, 160; 
first constitution. I6O"; present con- 
stitution, 182; territorial growth, 195, 
208, 226, 229, 231, 232, 263, 270; future 
of, 271 



276 



Index. 



Valle)' Forge, 156 

Vermont, 173 

V'espucius, Ainericus, 18 

Vicksburg, 25^ 

Vincennes (Vin-senO, Ind., 175 

Virginia, 27, 34-49, 245 

War, French, 132-143; of the Revolu- 
tion, 144-161; of 1812, 202-208; with 
Mexico, 226 ; between the States, 247- 
259 ; with Spain, 266-271 

Ward, Nancy, 179 

Washington, George, boyhood, 121-131 ; 
major, 133 ; colonel, 135-143 ; general, 
144-160; President, 182-188 

Washington city, 186, 204 

Watauga River, 176 

West Point Academy, 238, 239, 255, 256 



West, progress of the, 262 

Wheeler, General, 269 

White, Governor, 28 

Whitnev, Eli, 187 

Wilderness, battle, 254 

William and Mary College, 128, 189 

Williams, Roger, 75-77 

Williatnsburg, Va., 49, 130 

Wilson's Creek, battle, 253 

Winslow, Edward, 73 

Wisconsin, 176 

Wolfe, General, 141 

Wood, Colonel, 269 

World's Fairs, 204 

York, Duke of, 88 
Yorktown, Va., 159, 160 



Aur 



1901 



